


Necropypha

by To_Take_A_Heart



Category: Vampire Hunter D
Genre: Because They Don't Know, Eventual Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gender Confusion, Hidden Feels, Humor, Not In Chronological Order, Other, Otherwise Known as the Protaganist that Ships Their Own LI With Other People, Poor D, Poorly Hidden Feels, Potential Bad Puns, Potential Good Puns, Single-Target Attraction, Still Hidden Feels, The Anti-Ship, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, puns, semi-canon, too many tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2017-12-30 01:32:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1012430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/To_Take_A_Heart/pseuds/To_Take_A_Heart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This certainly was a strange person, D concluded. Though, it was a little disconcerting, that so many secrets were being held.<br/>After a deal being struck and an oddly-sudden rush of compassionate sympathy, D is saddled with one out-of-place, slightly-neurotic creature claiming to be from a world other than the usual.<br/>Other than an abnormally large appetite and an equally-disconcerting penchant for attracting trouble, the only thing he could find was an emphasis with the 'out-of-place'. He just couldn't figure out how someone could exist in this current world, while being so...<br/>...Pure.<br/>However, he would admit one thing- He never thought it would bother him this much, not knowing someone's gender.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. ~RIGHTEOUS~

**Author's Note:**

> As stated in the ever-charming tags, these will not be in any kind of chronological order. Some chapters may be a pointless expression of angst, some may be humorous, or may just cause you to smile a little at your screen.  
> The chapters are prone to being 'upgraded' as I call it. By which, I mean that I will read through it at one point in the future, and decide to mess with the way it's written in order to improve it/decrease my boredom.  
> So, ladies and sirs, I bid you to enjoy, criticize, praise, and altogether lurk to your heart's content.

### Righteous

The end of another job- Collecting payment, receiving guarded and slightly-insincere thanks, and then heading off to the next town. It was actually becoming a little endearing in its routineness, where the sheer variety of the contracts themselves lacked it. My life is so well-rounded at this point… I can’t imagine D’s life being easy, but I can imagine it being fulfilling, even if just a little.

But, then something happened now that hadn’t before, ever since I joined him.

Our latest assignment had been finished surprisingly smoothly, and we’d collected payment from a mayor that was abnormally insistent that we leave immediately after. I mean, they don’t exactly invite us to stay longer once a job is done, but I haven’t encountered _this_ kind of haste before.

Evidently, though, the mayor’s behavior had been for a very good reason.

Right at the gates into town stood what was probably the whole town awaiting us, the sharp pokey implements they carried telling me that they weren’t here to send us off safely.

When this- and its underlying connotations- registered in my brain a few milliseconds later, it turns out that D had been a few milliseconds ahead of me. He placed my hand on the horn of the horse’s saddle, and then himself in front of me as we led the cybernetic equine forward. I wondered why he would be as careful around someone he didn’t even know the gender of; I mean, he hasn’t caught on as far as I know. He hasn’t shown any signs… So either he’s being gentle to me as an individual, he found out somehow, or maybe he swings a way I don’t know about?

Oh, that would _figure._

Feeling a strange brew of anxiety, irony and nerves swirling in my belly, I could only stiffen as the crowd of people engulfed us the moment we approached.

“This is the great dhampir hunter that we hired, huh? Don’t seem too tough to me, up close.”

Something bright and fierce reared its head within me, something I hadn’t taken the time to consider as _unnatural_.

D is _my partner._

And they were cutting him down in front of me.

He is my _partner._

Stepping around his arm, I folded both of mine and tossed my head in scornful derision, uncaring that my heavily-cloaked state would render the motion odd and moot.

“You should take that into closer consideration, friend, when you decide to hire him.” My tone was nice and friendly, and I think that very fact was what made it off-putting. The gate-keeper robes may be climate-controlled on the inside, and they may obscure me as anything but a vague humanoid entity, but they also masked my voice into being like a gust of wind, featureless and wild. So, if it ever came out _tame…_ It would sound weird, to say the least.

The stirring masses seemed to completely ignore me, and continued riling themselves up.

“A bad omen, dhampir are. What do you think will happen, once he leaves?” That same voice from before seemed to be the focal point of all the trouble, a belligerent villager of about middle-age making his way to the front of the crowd.

I knew where this was going- I snarled.

“Inflicting your injured ego upon your wife tonight, no doubt.” I attempted to cut off his insinuations before they rooted themselves into the minds of everyone present, but evidently all my brutality did was cause more trouble. The man flushed beet-red, gritting his teeth, and D tugged me back with a warning glance.

“Watch it,” He murmured, putting my hand back on the saddle’s horn. He looked down at me, and then returned his gaze to the rest of them expressionlessly. “Don’t get involved.”

“Listen to that!” The inflamed villager jeered, and the rustling amongst the townsfolk only got worse and worse. The man attempted to appear intimidating by jutting his jaw out and planting his feet firmly into the ground. “You think you’d be grateful, dhampir- An unfortunate soul, to end up being the sad friend to a dhampir of all things, but to remain unappreciated like that… Just the worst, ain’t he? He should accept whatever _pity_ gets thrown his way.”

I gritted my teeth and felt them grow to needle-like points within the confines of my hood. Breathe - Just breathe, don’t let their words get under your skin…

Dread filled me to the core when, despite the weapons being held, a bunch of people started leaning down to pick rocks up from the ground. In an instant, D was urging me into the saddle, trying to wrangle me up by the limbs. I refused, looking around frantically and trying to figure out how to prevent this.

That was the thing about D; He never killed a human, never raised a hand against one, and would never do so even when threatened in such a way. The best of people was birthed into one of the most miserable of lives…

An intense pain slashed into my chest as they started hesitantly, slowly raising their makeshift projectiles, shouting encouragement to each other in what they were about to do. Rejected by both sides of his heritage, he was always alone, always…

I’d moved without thinking, without discrimination or reluctance.

A stone bigger than my fist hit me square between the shoulder blades, and I grunted from the impact more than anything, feeling a warm-wet start sliding down my back. D actually looked _surprised_ , eyes widened more than normal and lips parted in question. I didn’t waste time dissecting his subtle turns of expression, however- I ground my teeth together as I pushed strength from my sludge-like wraith’s blood into my body, heating it into running successfully. As rock after rock was thrown, little ol’ me had muscled him up into the saddle. I climbed behind him and pushed him down into a crouch by the horse’s neck. I braced my feet properly in the stirrups and folded myself over him, draping robes covering him from the sides.

Taking a fistful of mane, seeing as how the reins were beyond my reach, I dug my heels into the metal sides of the horse perhaps a little too harshly. Letting out a sharp “Hiyah!” I wheeled it around and forced myself a path through the people.

Just as we were leaving the ring of the lynch mob, my body shifted roughly off to the side at a slant, and I had to hurry to straighten myself. It was only a second later that I realized that I’d been clipped in the shoulder with a stone at least as large as my head, which had nearly knocked me off the horse.

Despite the fact that I was infinitely smaller than the broad-shouldered man awkwardly hanging on beneath me, I’d efficiently sheltered him. Not a single stone had struck him, and that alone was good enough for me.

I don’t know how long we’d ridden, but it must have been for at least a few hours, for the sun had already started setting by the time we came to safety. Breaking into the line of trees filled me with relief, because that meant that we were now officially under the cover of foliage, and soon to be night.

That relief must have sucked the life from my limbs, however- The rigid position I’d been tenuously holding over my much-bulkier partner slipped out of my control as if I’d never held it at all. I slid off and landed unceremoniously in the dirt, body shaking and refusing to respond to the synapses firing from my brain.

The horse stopped immediately, I heard, as its hooves dug short trenches and churned up small clods of soft earth. There was the creaking of leather as I could only assume D looked back at me. The sound of feet landing almost jolted me, with how loud it sounded, along with the slightly-rushed footsteps approaching.

And hey. It didn’t rain before, did it- Oh. Not rain, I realized belatedly. The black liquid pooling beneath me turned out to be my blood, and I wondered when I’d gotten struck hard enough to bleed. Then it hit me, no pun intended. That entire time, it was- That whole time, I’d been getting stoned by the stupid humans local to that region, and my single-mindedness had carried us all the way here without me even noticing until after the fact.

I found myself with the strength to roll over on my back- Well, I thought I did, until I realized it had been D kneeling beside me, whom had rolled me over.

“That was…” He began quietly, face tensing up slightly.

Lefty spoke up from within his clenched fist, scraping voice muffled.

“An incredibly stupid thing to do.” He was reprimanding me, I realized. “You do know this isn’t the first time we dealt with this crap, right? I said it before, and I’ll say it again. You aren’t made for this world, so you should just go and leave this crumb-bucket behind. You’re going to die, eventually, if you’re all self-sacrificing like this. It’s dumb. A complete waste of life, if you ask me.”

Of course, he was riling me up- The blood slowly started sucking back into my body, to which D seemed slightly alarmed by, if the way he shifted said anything about it.

“I’m not going to die.” Was all I could get out. While my blood would always return to me, it would just mean I’d start bleeding all over again. Like some sanguine, vicious cycle…

“…He’s right.” D said finally, and I dragged my eyes from the tree branches to his face. He never smiles, does he…? “This world isn’t worthy enough. The vampires hold the darkness gene, and the humans hold the light- They both refuse to give in to them. You shine that light around, and the world is bound to want to devour it.”

I began laughing. It hurt, but I still laughed.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I forced words to form from my cooling lips, as blood began spilling from my never-healing wounds once more. “What part of me is light? I did what was proper. I protected my partner. That’s all.”

Somewhere under my bruised ~~and possibly broken~~ ribcage, there was a sharp stab of something that was admonishing me for only speaking part of it. For him to be rejected so coldly by people he’d helped, by the people who… He’d _saved the lives of_ , the people who _chose him for the job_ … In what kind of insane place, was this the norm? The hate of a whole world was centered upon a single, undeserving man… All because of the blood that ran through his veins? It was such an _alien_ thought to me. To be constantly chased from town-to-town- It wasn’t even the nomadic life, that my brain had difficulty wrapping around. It was the sheer _anomaly_ of someone like him being so… So…?

 _Abandoned_.

By both sides of his coin, he’d been abandoned, he’d been left to create his own niche in a world that didn’t want him.

Was I being too sensitive to his plight, to something he’s been so familiar with that he probably knows no other life? Most likely.

But this was my instinct, my curse- I protect the lost, I comfort the hopeless, I see weary souls to their graves… For now, this was the existence I was given. And if I learned one thing from being in this treacherous plane, it was that nature was only fought by the foolish.

“…I would thank you, under normal circumstances. For the sentiment, anyway.” D’s voice broke through my musings, and he set to slowly gathering me up in his arms. “But I won’t say it. Not this time.”

I laughed again, this time not as harshly- The blood beneath me strung up into the air, still being beckoned back into my body and slipping back out as a result. A little embarrassing, actually…

“And you call _me_ weird?” I drawled, suddenly feeling in a much better mood. “All right, I’ll bite- Pun intended. Why won’t you thank me for this?”

The silver-eyed dhampir remained silent as he peered about, possibly looking for somewhere where I could heal undisturbed. And, no matter how much I prodded, he refused to answer.

So I did what I would always do, and got my answer another way.

“Lefty, you have a clue?”

D didn’t look too pleased at my under-handed tactic.

Haha, I’m so funny.

I can do this all day.

The grouchy voice complained, but complied.

“Why bring _me_ into this?” He demanded, sighing. “It’s obvious, idiot. He isn’t about to start encouraging that silly bleeding heart of yours, is he? We aren’t lookin’ to get you killed, you know.”

I blinked and cocked my head, the latter of which being the only one visible. Sometimes, it’s really inconvenient, to have important body language swathed to nonexistence… Wait.

Body language.

Talking hand.

Why are there so many puns, today?

“I don’t get it.” I stated bluntly, to which I could practically hear Lefty rolling his eyes. Well, the non-eyeball-bearing equivalent, anyway.

It was really quiet after that, almost peaceful- The pain from the earthen weaponry bore to me began slowly fading into existence, the power pulled from my blood drawing back into itself, rendering me only slightly more useless than usual. A cool, shaded area beneath a tree was found, and I was propped against it, D being extremely mindful of the wounds. I’d exhaled and sagged back against the bark, the life from the wildlife around me unobtrusively crawling closer, seeping into my skin to fix the various-god-knows-whats under my clothes. I didn’t even want to look; I’d gotten far worse than this before, so all I would need to do is wait…

I almost didn’t notice how D crouched onto the balls of his feet before me, with how drowsy I’d gotten. He studied me seriously, enigmatically- Like he always did.

Then, his lips parted, and I internally despaired a little, at how a person beautiful on the outside can be so much more so on the inside. Completely unfair, turning my words on me...

“I’m protecting my partner.” He stood, turned, and set off to unhook the saddlebag from the horse.

“That’s all.”


	2. ~ACCEPTANCE~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which D finds himself in the position to return the favor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Y'know, I think that D would make an awesome bestie.  
>  He's thoughtful, un-opinionated, and never mind he's too pretty. *o*  
> But prepare for some serious stuff. :3

 

 

 

 

### Acceptance

 

_"...So, if I'm going to be traveling with you... What should I do?"_

_A head of dark hair was cocked, sliver eyes gleaming in the light of the fire as his hands removed his hat for the night. He pondered over their words for a moment._

_"I don't understand." He responded finally._

_His new companion sighed greatly. "Well, I'm going to be working with you, correct? Generally one divvies up the chores, battle tactics, and the roles amongst party members..."_

_Once more, he thought it over._

_"...Do as you want. I will not stop you." He answered, laying back on his bedroll and angling his hat over his face. "Just don't walk in front of me, or behind me."_

_There was an exhale._

_"All right. Beside you, then."_

 

* * *

 

 

It was completely silent, the weight and guilt of actions that were normally brushed off by me striking me right in the soft belly. The edge of the cliff at my back was steep, possibly fatal- Perhaps as much as the attackers had been, that now laid in pieces strewn about the ground.

My hands, I stared at them- Longer than a human’s ever should be, possessing of no claws, but deadlier than any blade imaginable. The silver sheen to the skin- Like the pallor of a corpse brought to the surface of the skin, borne to the world like a war-banner, the coloring of some fauna that bid warning to any who wished to prey upon it… The spines raking up my arms, the bone that was a more bold threat to those who did not recognize the first message, and was for far more than just show. The wings, all of it- Everything that made me a beast, everything that caused utter destruction around it, everything that was _what I hid_ was out in the open, bare. The gate-keeper robes I had worn were now a little too tight, with how my proportions had changed; Even everything else… Only my identity yet remained obscured.

I kept my head bowed, flinching every time the weight of heavy black, crooked wings would brush by my arms, waiting, always waiting.

He’d seen it, finally.

I’d lost enough control around him, and now he would detest me- He would loathe me as he did all other life-takers, all other monsters that took from others in order to sustain their own existences. The vampire hunter that I had…

I trembled in the face of a gusting wind, the hood of the straining robes yet performing its duty of shielding me from view. Didn’t care- Everything was over…

I continued waiting for the judgment, the punishment, the sword slicing through my innards and sending them spilling to greet the others that littered the grass. Red and green, red turning brown, the blood soaked into the little soil left of this world… Only a horrible person, could commit…

A footstep was taken closer, and while my mind may have submitted to him, my body yet refused to give up its life to another being; Instinctively, a step backward had been taken. My heel landed right on the edge, and I would have been fine there, if it weren’t for the extra weight of bone and flesh protruding from my back. I began tipping back, the body’s urge to monopolize itself satisfied with the thought of its life remaining dealt by its own hand. It didn’t do anything- Wings didn’t spread, arms didn’t flail, heartbeat didn’t increase…

Though, my pulse had started thundering in spite of it all.

A large, clawed hand reached forward, almost lazily in its unrushed grace, and clutched the juncture of my shoulder and my neck, halting my body’s attempts at further defiance. Another flattened itself on my back, a brace against gravity.

Everything was utterly still for a long moment, as I was yet suspended over the edge… But, then I was pulled forth, and the _look_ in his eyes made me flinch hard. His expressions were generally the same, unless something big enough to extract a reaction from him happened. But those _eyes…_ The ones that had watched over me so carefully up until now, the ones belonging to the one I’d ultimately betrayed by even being beside him… Those eyes were _gentle_ , I came to realize. It’s wasn’t just the irresistible allure of being a dhampir that always made me look in his direction; It was the quiet solemnity, the silent pledge, the unwavering quality that he directed at me time and time again. The glittering heart that I’d tried so hard to shield from this cruel world shone in his eyes, because it always did. I never noticed, because I’d never seen him look at me any other way…

“…What do you think you’re doing?” The youthful voice came out gravely, though it didn’t quite sound as if he were angry. I didn’t even notice as I was pulled further away from the ledge, at first. “You could have fallen.”

I hung my head, bitten by the unintentional lash of his words.

“I already have.”

Stupid- I could have kicked myself, for letting out something as pathetic as that. How in the world could I tell _D_ of all people, something as idiotic and selfish as that…?

“You don’t need to tell me.”

He tugged my head back up by the edge of my hood, and I’m sure that I would have nearly burst into tears, with that look on his face. It was the same as always, it always was the same- But now it was _different…_

“…What happens now?” I kept on with my courage, the one thing that I seemed to never run out of in times like this.

He inclined his head, and the wide brim of his hat touched my forehead. “It is the same as before.” He murmured. “Do as you want. I will not stop you.”

And sometimes, that bravery of mine can get me into trouble.

“That’s not what I meant!” I snapped without thinking, and he shifted slightly. “This stopped being about what I wanted a long time ago, D. Now, it’s about what _you_ want. Whatever it is…” I faltered here, voice waning. “…I’ll abide by it.”

There, I said it.

My mind’s resolution to provide recompense for hiding my true nature was put into words. Now, there would be no way he could misunderstand, there would be no way he could remove himself from the situation by merely dancing to my whims…

He took my words very seriously, and the darkly-lashed eyes bore down at me in seemingly distant scrutiny. But now, I knew better…

“…What I want has never mattered, before.” He evaded quietly, though I don’t think he actually meant to dodge it.

Now I was the one looking up at him steadily, watching carefully.

“To me, it does.”

Whoa now, maybe you shouldn’t have come off as… strong… as that… Ignoring the rush of humiliated embarrassment welling up behind my breastbone, I continued gazing up at him, determined to get a satisfactory response- One way or the other…

The hard encasement of a gauntlet touched the side of my head, and I could only blink as long fingers stroked down it, just once. Though, while his action was what one might call _affectionate_ , his expression looked largely unmoved, deep in thought, perhaps even troubled. Even after all this time, I still can’t figure out what he’s thinking… I felt something small shrivel up inside of me, something important, something in sore need of _something._

“Walk beside me, then.” When I received this answer, I was a little confused as to what he meant by it- And here I thought I was finally going to get something straight out of him… His lips moved, and more words spilled out into the chilled, blood-scented air. “That is what I want. I would be asking too much, to ask anything else.”

I stared up at him, dumbfounded, eyes wide and…

So he didn’t…

He doesn’t…

Hate me?

“So what I…” I swallowed the rest of my words by mistake, and nearly couldn’t let them back out again. “This part of me, you don’t…?”

“Walk beside me. Not in front, or behind.”

He repeated it again, simply, as if…

…None of it mattered.

That something small unfurled itself, allowed the equally small, trembling hope to quench it and bloom into a tiny, trembling smile. This was my beast, he was looking at- Bloodstained, feral, deadly and able to kill possibly even one as strong as he. This was a monster he was looking at, but the only one he saw… Was me.

That smile grew stronger, but it was tired, because _I_ was _so tired…_

But, I still smiled. Even though it couldn’t be seen.

“Okay. Right next to you, then.”

Then _he smiled._

It was such a slight expression, such a small, minuscule upturn of the corners of his mouth- But it was there, somehow as plain as day, turning the guarded slant of his eyes into a soft curve. Such an unremarkable change made all the difference in the _world_ , and it suddenly hit me that he’d need to beat me away with a stick, to chase me off. There no way I could leave someone so enchanting, who _needed me…_ _Wanted me_ to walk beside him. Which one was stronger, I wondered? That which was required, which was no choice- Or that which was chosen by one’s own, dear will, a decision to be stood by or dropped? Either one, or both, it didn’t matter.

He wanted me with him.

So I would be.

He needed me with him.

So I would be.

Slowly, the strung-tight tension in my wings left, making them droop, body recognizing the signals sent from the brain that confirmed there would be no threat from him. There would never be a threat from him.

I leaned forward and sagged against him, weariness having finally taken its toll. But I will admit, I was surprised. Rather than just allowing me something solid to rest against, his arms raised and caught me, the hard curve of his gauntlets melding into warm hand on my back.

I had enough energy to speak one last time, before the drowsiness became too much to fight against.

“You should tell me what you want more often…”


	3. ~INTENT~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which D finds himself unable to act.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why didn't I think of this sooner?  
> I am disappointed in myself.

 

 

 

### Intent

 

“Hm-hm. You’re quite the mystery, aren’t you?”

This was remarked to me by the handsome stranger that decided to tag along, as I collected payment from yet another town, for yet another job.

Wonderful, blissful routine.

D had told me to go ahead of him, so he could make sure our mark’s death was a permanent one while still meeting the deadline set by our client. On the way out of town, though, there had been this oddly striking, mature fellow that had sidled on over and proposed we travel together to the crossroads.

…I really need to stop meeting so many people that are prettier than me.

But I continued with my stately pace, unhurried, with my arms crossed in a blatant show of caution.

“That depends on what you consider a mystery.” I replied blandly. “If you mean some random person you approached for seemingly no reason other than pestering them while on their way to never see you again, then yes, I am quite a mystery.”

“Someone’s feeling saucy today.” He commented mildly, utterly unperturbed by my pointed unfriendliness. “I would feel wounded myself, but these are troubled times. And I couldn’t let you face the wilderness to return to your partner with a light heart.” He smiled at me pleasantly, and something felt very… Irked, in the back of my mind. Irked, and peevish, and inexplicably _irritated…_

I scoffed. “So you couldn’t follow any number of the _other_ people leaving town today? It just had to be me?” Then I understood that feeling I got, and narrowed my eyes defensively. “And what do _you_ know of my partner?” I demanded straight away, the moment that feeling reaffirmed itself.

His response was smooth. “Why, everyone’s heard of the infamous hunter D. What nobody has heard of, however, is that he travels with company. What a rare find you must be, for him to keep you with him.” The stranger was talking as if he was just that, a stranger. But it was his tone of voice, that spoke of something much more _intimate_ than that. As if he was waving it in my face, taunting me with a truth he would not speak.

And that just made me more _irked._

I didn’t know _why_ , and could only chalk it up to more protective tendencies for the time being.

_Still…_

“I don’t know why that’s so funny a thing.” I countered ambiguously. Let’s see what he’s willing to give up… “He’s likeable enough of a fellow. Doesn’t talk much, but a lot of people could do to keep his sense of ethics, if not his compassion.”

“Compassion? Ridiculous.” The man had said this without pausing a beat, then added casually, “There are legends spoken of his disconnected manner. Slight sympathy or pity, perhaps, but nothing as forthright as _compassion._ ”

So he definitely knows D in some shape or form. There’s no way he’d offer that kind of information so insolently like that, on the basis of hearing it on the grapevine. Even I could see he was far too intelligent, and he didn’t seem to have the malignancy of someone trying to mislead me with untruths.

I was almost insulted.

“Well, as someone who is _not_ traveling with him currently,” I said this on a light tone, an unspoken warning clearly beneath. “I would hold off on calling the kettle black or purple or whatever color you’re fancying at the moment, if I were you. Ah, speaking of which— I don’t believe I’d caught your name, stranger.” I smiled coolly beneath my hood, and once more felt a little nonplussed that hiding myself also made bullying people less ~~fun~~ effective.

The dark-haired man suddenly stopped walking, a cheerful smile on his face. “That would be because I didn’t throw it at you, of course.” He bantered evasively, and I stopped walking as well. “And this is where I must leave you, I’m afraid. But don’t worry, I look forward to hearing of your future exploits with him.”

The traveler moved so abruptly, I had no time to see it coming nor do anything about it… At first.

He was very close, peering into the shadows of my hood as if to see the face they hid. Then, an elegant hand drifted forth, toward the confines of my enchanted raiment— I did the only thing I could think of at the time, and bit it as hard as I could.

There was a spray of bright scarlet flashing through the air as it splattered forth, followed shortly by a hiss of pained outrage. The unnamed hindrance clutched his hand but gave no retribution; Rather, he whirled around and disappeared into the dusk, leaving behind nothing but a faint smear of blood on the ground from where it fell.

Spitting the excess blood from my mouth, I pondered on his sudden departure— I’m pretty sure a bite would have made someone attack me, not run away— when I heard hoof beats somewhere nearby.

That explains it.

I turned aside just as D approached at a rolling canter, pulling on the reins as his horse reared at the order for a sudden stop. He swung down without further ado, and glanced around, eyes frighteningly cold. “Who?” It was a one-word demand, and I complied without hesitation.

“A good-looking man, in about his mid-thirties, a suave attitude and now sporting a nasty hole in his hand.” I supplied succinctly, cocking my head. “Why? Do you know him?” He stared at me, which usually translated to asking for an elaboration, so I gave him one. “I bit him. On the hand. Hard. He bled, see?” I pointed to the cooling red on the ground.

His gaze followed, and he crouched down to examine the stain.

If anything, his face got harder, and his hands clenched slightly on his thighs.

“…D?” I asked quietly, kneeling down beside him. Why would this be…?

“Did he say anything to you? Do anything?” He muttered to me, almost cutting me off. “Why did you attack him?”

I blinked rapidly, and responded in kind. “In order? He was being creepy, making insinuations about you, and generally bothering me. And,” I paused, briefly pondering if I should even tell him, but decided to anyway. “He tried to touch me. I didn’t like it. So I bit him, and he fled. Most likely because you were close by.” I gazed at him steadily, angling myself forward to catch his attention. “D, who _was he?”_

The dhampir replied with a surprising lack of hesitation.

“My father.”

I fell flat on my backside in shock, doused in the reality of how _much_ danger I had just been in, without knowing. Even I, who am little more than a visitor to this world, had already heard who it was, that was alleged to have spawned the dhampir known as D. And he had been…

“…Does this mean I should aim for the eyes next time?” I asked lamely, attempting to test whether he was angry at me or not. I couldn’t tell, from the look he was giving me…

Then, he closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and exhaled the same.

When he answered, he kept his eyes shut.

“No.” Then another breath left him, this one carrying a note of relief to one listening closely. “His attention never bodes well for the one he gives it to. If you see him again, call for me. If I am not there, run.” Those eyes opened, and he was so _serious._ “And don’t stop until I find you.” He added, staring at me straightly.

I absorbed his instruction silently, and nodded.

“Got it.” I paused, feeling as if that weren’t enough. “…and I’m sorry for not noticing, if it means anything. I really should have, but he seemed just like another one of those annoying-types of humans.” I shrugged, and folded my feet beneath me so I could stand up. He followed suit.

There was a slight moment of easily-identifiable hesitation, as D looked at me, glanced at the horse, and then back to me. “…he is never around without reason.” He murmured, then looking beyond me. “We should set camp nearby for a few days, to make sure he doesn’t stir something up while he’s here.” Again, that hesitation… Why, though?

“D?” I once more prompted him, concern starting to twinge my insides tightly.

Once more he looked back to me, but now his words were spoken much slower, almost emphatically. “…or perhaps we should set out immediately.”

It clicked.

He was worried about my safety? I blinked, feeling a little dazed at the revelation. He said that his father taking an interest in me couldn’t be a good thing, so… There was the _right_ thing to do, which would be to keep an eye on that dark-haired fellow with the charming attitude. But then there was the conflict. He didn’t _want_ me to come to _that_ kind of danger again.

I smiled brightly, despite the fact that it could only be sensed in tone. And barely that.

“We should stick around for a little bit.” I agreed with a bob of my head. “He might be silly, but if he’s half as strong as you are, we can’t let him run around a human settlement unchecked.” I patted his arm reassuringly, and he sighed briefly.

It was Lefty, however, that commented.

“Okay, I tried to keep my trap shut but this just goes too far.” He grumbled tiredly. “Are you like an evolutionary mistake or somethin’? I don’t understand how someone as lacking in self-preservation as you lived this long.” He spouted off a bit more, but either I tuned him out or D squeezed his fist again. I really wasn’t paying attention.

But I understood what was going on, and set to rectify the situation. “You can’t kill that which doesn’t die, D.” I canted my head forward. “You don’t need to worry about me so much. Really. But… I will do my best to be careful from now on. I might not have much to worry about, but the last thing I want is my own carelessness backfiring onto you. So, consider it done.”

There was a simple quiet then, and he angled his hat a little lower after he mounted the horse again, wordless. The sky was getting darker rather quickly, and it was difficult to see his expression— Still, he held a hand out to help me up.

I took it.


	4. ~CAUSTIC~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which D was the last to know. 
> 
>  
> 
> ~~...also in which the protagonist has this thing with shipping D with everyone but themselves.~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was gonna happen eventually. XD The big surprise that really isn't a big surprise.

“Get back in the carriage.”

One more job, this time one simpler in nature, turned out to be the opposite.

D ordered our employer into the safe confines of his mode of transportation, and the only thing stranger than this sudden change of events would have to be the employer himself.

The dhampir did not deal with the Nobility unless it was within the strictest of guidelines; No feeding, and it would end in the eventual death of a Noble far worse than the one making the contract. The latter being implied, of course.

I rolled with it, obviously— I really couldn’t point fingers at one Noble or the other for being evil or anything along those lines. Nature could be a cruel thing, but then again, so could free will.

Sometimes, I wondered why the former would have brought about the latter with such impunity.

“I do not need to be coddled, D.” The lilted voice of our client echoed from behind us, and white hair shined in the dusk in spite of the lack of light from within the carriage. “It would be best if I fought as well.”

My partner said nothing, but glanced at me. He wants me to be his voice again? Fine.

“That won’t be necessary.” I called back, as I finished adjusting the bridles to the horses. “They will be here soon, and we cannot act under the assumption that they’re intending to come after you _and_ stay alive in the process. The Barbaroi complete contracts under their own code; The fact they were sent after you means you must have pissed off the right people. It’s us versus them. If there’s a need for you to get involved, it would only be because we failed and you would then need to flee like the sun is rising.” With an exhale, I finished prepping the equines for a potential need to pick up and leave abruptly.

I went back to D, whom had his eyes narrowed into the distance, possibly judging the amount of time we had until impact. Probably.

“…There’s only two.” He reported quietly, so much so that I almost didn’t catch him. “I will engage them. You defend the carriage. Remember, the employer lives through this.”

I was actually pretty offended by that. But then it hit me a second later that he’d purposely said that, a nonchalant way of working me up. I scoffed at him and went along with it, sighing. “What, you mean I _can’t_ use him as a meat-shield? But I thought the Nobility were supposed to be indestructible. Well shucks, there goes _that_ plan of action.” I rolled my eyes, turned and approached the carriage. Once more, a white head of hair poked around the door— Except that ‘poked’ is a term that didn’t imply the inherent grace all vampires bore.

“I apologize if you need to rework your battle strategy.” He remarked mildly, his civility completely making fun of me.

I shrugged.  
“I’ll manage.” I replied casually. “Besides, it’ll be difficult for you to count out our payment if you lose a hand or two in the midst of keeping my hide in one piece. So, Mr. Vampire, if you’d excuse me…” Now that I mention it, I didn’t get this one’s name… Ah, well.

The ground erupted violently somewhere near my feet, but I’d nimbly leapt to the top of the carriage, a foot kicking the door shut in passing.

A twisting, writhing root burst from the spot, and its tip shot straight for me.

I grinned, humming under my breath, and commit my blood to not run, but _course._

From sludge to oil it suddenly slickened under my skin, and _oh_ I have a feeling this was going to be fun.

 

* * *

 

_The Noble watched passively from his window as his hired escorts abruptly took to arms, the infamous with sword and the unknown with fist. Or hand, he corrected, seeing the wrapped appendages grip the earthen attacker and wrench it from the ground._

_A flash of white— A spare backslash from the dhampir severed the rest of the tendril from the ground, in a movement so absent it may have very well been unintentional._

_One opponent fought above ground, seeming to be relatively human-looking for a Barbaroi; the other fought below the earth, and if the stretching limbs were any indication, this one was far from._

_D’s foe said nothing, but attacked with needles, so that they seemed to rain from the sky itself. Blade deflected and feet dodged the onslaught, the flickering of the gleaming metals disorienting as they clashed._

_Then, a lunge._

_The half-blooded hunter closed the distance between he and the Barbaroi, whose lips were now spreading cruelly into a smile._

_The palms that bore the sharp weaponry were slashed across, and even then the beast mocked. With a leap, D avoided the spray of virulent green shot from the slit palms. Where the fluid landed, on the soft earth, large openings were created as the acid ate through…_

_His partner refused to be outdone, however._

_More roots had exited the ground, a total of five, and the black-garbed creature seemed to amuse itself with dancing between them. The end-game was clearly seen in how the reaching plant life became quite deeply entangled with itself, but with a sudden heave, the entire set of them swung._

_It was as if there was a magnet beneath the hunter’s partner, causing it— Him, her, it? The spectator yet did not know— to fall flat on their back, too low for the roots to bend. A roll was made, to the side, and then forward. Hooking an arm under the knot tightening with each of the wriggles made by the monster, boots were planted firmly, and the appendages were **pulled** —_

_D switched tracks for only a fraction of a second, but enough for the on-looking Noble to easily notice. From one strike to the next against his own opponent, the hunter’s tension precluded another slash to be made to aid his partner, but the disembodied voice of the swathed being gave him pause._

_“No, D.”_

_With just that, momentum was pulled back around, giving way to an overarching blow the needle-wielding assassin didn’t anticipate; The long blade slammed right past the gruesome teeth of that smile, piercing through the skull to the other side._

_The humanoid Barbaroi didn’t even make a peep as it was cleanly split in two, a splash of blood and the descent of the separate pieces the only sound even suggesting death._

_Right in that moment, there was a screech, high-pitched and terrifying— No, terri **fied**. _

_Both Noble and dhampir turned their attention to the remaining foe, to see a surprising scene._

_He only turned his gaze away for a second, and yet Baron Balthazar was mystified at how much the situation had changed. There was the upper-body of an anthropomorphic being, lifted into the air by a single hand, at the throat._ _The lower half of the being’s body resembled that of a plant uprooted from the earth, clods of soil and rocks shaking to the ground with every movement._ _The texture of its skin seemed to be that as of any other root in the ground, and seemed to be flaking off as it thrashed in… Terror?_

 _It was the other hand, though. The other hand had just finished pulling back up the hood that obscured the darker form’s face, implying that it had been pulled down while they hadn’t been looking._

_Balthazar could only marvel at how the Barbaroi was made seemingly harmless, but it took little thought to figure out how it was done. Held so far from the ground, up in the air, where no nature could grow… It was only fitting._

_With a final cut straight across the body of the already-defeated henchman, D moved to his partner’s side, and the one yet alive immediately stilled, marble-like eyes wavering._

_“My hunter friend is going to ask you a few questions.” That strange voice stated calmly. “I know how the Barbaroi work, so after the fact you’ll most likely die. You get to choose whether you want it to be at the hands of your brethren when you return defeated, or you can have a clean death at his. Well, how clean it is depends on how cooperative you are, too. So, what’s it going to be?” Even though it was nothing but the voice of a ghoul, the words were spun with such care… Even the Noble grew subdued. “This is going to be the last decision of your life. Why not make it easier for yourself, just this once? You spent your entire life serving to the best of your ability, and I commend you for that. But you’ve lost, and this one failure condemns you in front of those you’d served all this time. The end result is going to be the same. But I let you choose how it happens. Just this once, you decide for your own sake, and not for the sake of the whole.” The arm was lowered slightly._

_Those words, manipulation sugar-coated with the coaxing of the damned— Balthazar found himself drifting out of the carriage to get a closer look._

_The remaining assassin was held upside-down, by its root, and proffered to the silently-watching dhampir. D took it into his left hand, and his blade into the right. The former unnerved it more than the latter._

_The words spoken to the failed killer were lost on him, however, for the other one approached the Noble, obviously dismissing the scene now that its job was done._

_What was said next, though, confounded him._

_“So, what’s your name again? I forgot.”_

* * *

 

“…Balthazar.”

Ahh, that was it! I grinned triumphantly, now that the little, niggling thought in the back of my head was assuaged. “Oh. Yeah, sorry about that. I was a little busy when introductions were being made, sooo.” I scratched the back of my head sheepishly. “But hey, we kept you safe. So that makes up for it, right?”

Bleeding-red eyes peered at me curiously, and the side of his mouth twitched. “What professionalism.” He commented blankly. “You do the job that I, a Noble, am paying you for, and you worry about not knowing my name. When they say to hire the best, it’s no wonder why D and his fellow hunter are brought up.”

I was surprised by the praise, but otherwise deemed it paltry and unneeded. “It’s just being a decent person.” I declared bluntly, succinctly.

The Noble smiled. “Something this world could do to see more of, certainly.” He agreed with me, oddly enough. “But seeing what was happening with my own eyes was enough for me.”

My attention was turned from him by a bright splash of red, and I looked to D. His sword was back in its sheathe, and the Barbaroi was dead, split up the middle and hung from a tree, roots dangling just inches from the earth that would revivify it. He looked back, and I trotted to him obediently. “What is it?” I asked.

The hunter glanced away for a second. “There will be more, but not today. We should take advantage and cover as much ground as we can.” Another glance was taken.

I nodded stoutly. “Roger that. Will you drive the carriage or shall I?”

“I can drive,” Balthazar cut in smoothly, approaching with an even gait and tone alike. “And I wouldn’t mind the company.” He inclined his head graciously.

Whoa, whoa whoa whoa— There were alarms blaring in my head, even though there really wasn’t anything _wrong_ with what he suggested. It was more of the fact that he _actually suggested it_ , which meant an interest in the person that is me, which was _not_ on the menu. I didn’t spend all of my time skulking in the shadows just to be poked and prodded about everything. I am secret because this world cannot know anything else.

Just as I was fishing around for an excuse that wouldn’t completely and utterly offend the Noble’s pride, D intervened on my behalf. “You ride with me.” And that was that.

Giving a shrug to the puzzled-looking Balthazar, I made for D’s horse, only to see the dhampir himself waylaid by the vampire. His arm had been taken, and the Noble leaned close, murmuring something to him. I blinked, because while I wasn’t dumb enough to not notice how each of them were extraordinarily handsome, I’d just realized that side-by-side just made it a whole lot better.

Looking up at the gloaming sky and wondering if that was breaking a rule of some kind, I was then brought back to reality by the shifting and creaking of leather. Familiar. Safe.

I automatically swiveled my head to the side, seeing a clawed hand held out to pull me onto the horse. As usual.

Grasping it firmly, I hoisted myself up, and braced myself for the inevitable brisk pace we took. I was just glancing back to check on the carriage behind us when I noticed D doing the same— But his gaze was on me, from the corner of his eye.

He looked forward again, but this time he waited a bit before speaking lowly, for my ears alone.

“Why do you hide?”

 

* * *

 

_The question may have been unexpected, but nothing more so than the muttered response he was given._

_“Cataclysm. Where I go with a worldly persona, events happen that would be better off not happening. The less I am like the living, the less I affect.” His partner paused, and D briefly asked himself when he’d become so used to that term. “Because I came from somewhere else, I don’t exist here. I don’t… Belong. But I am here regardless, and until I can be safe in the mind that being here will not upset the tenuous balance this world has going for it, I will remain hidden. Though,” A laugh was given, and he was proven to not have been as inconspicuous as he thought he’d been with his attention. “Since you already know about me, I should probably expect how you treat me to change, huh?”_

_D said nothing, because nothing needed to be said._

_One part guilt, for never noticing himself, since suspicion does not count; two parts of this odd, troubled anger, for knowing that their employer had been around for a much shorter time, and yet noticed before he; and another part unspoken concern._

_He knew that his **own** behavior would not change. _

_But the Noble’s smugly humorous words had cut more deeply than he first thought._

**_“It was quite something, to see one monster frightened by another… I couldn’t help but think, though. She must have quite the beautiful smile.”_ **


	5. ~BEGINNING~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which an end had started, a start had ended, and some worries that cannot be shared.

“What? You again? Didn’t we kill you, say, about four or five times?”

I’d uttered this in a complete deadpan, watching as the female Noble stood straight, tall, and so terribly proud as she looked down her nose at me.

“I did not get to live this long just to be defeated by a halfling and his overgrown pet.” She sniffed disdainfully, waving a hand at me. I dodged the sharp, deadly gust of wind that sliced at me shortly after. I really had to say, though… After having to murder countless monsters and other amalgamations for coin, it’s kinda nice, having something pretty to look at when on the job. She was smaller than most other women of the Nobility, petite and narrow, like a little knife. That, and since it isn’t D I’m gawking at, I can pretty much gawk to my heart’s content.

It was kinda a shame, too, that I’d have to kill her.  
Again.

 

* * *

 

_“No! You accursed, forsaken **blight** upon our great heritage—!”_

_This was an unearthly howl given, as Acclara hunched over, fingers threaded into her dark hair and ripping it out from the roots. Her thin, lithe form was shaking in rage, and her fangs were on display for all to see as they gnashed together._

_D stood, motionless and unmoved, something resembling a silver key dissolving from his hand in a dark blue glow. Those lights swirled there, about his fingers, as if dancing merrily— Then they coalesced, spinning together in an orb of malevolent power. It quivered, like it was giggling to itself, before it suddenly burst into a shower of whirling sparks, which then drifted to the ground as dark feathers gathering in a heap._

_The woman lunged for them madly, but the hunter’s blade waylaid her, nothing more than a flash of white._

_Both of them stopped all action once they saw something shifting in the pile. The feathers caught together, stitching their edges into seams to show what would become a vaguely human form._

_It wasn’t tall, nor was it short; neither stocky nor thin. It pulled itself from the earth with a distant grace, however, as if it were still occupying some other plane of existence._

_But now the vault had been released, and this heavily-cloaked, bandaged being swayed to its feet, more feathers merging to finish the creation of its garb. Nothing could be seen from within the hood, but it looked between the two of them all the same, the darkness strangely empty._

_A finger lifted, and pointed at the hunter simply._

_“You called me here?” An echoing voice, like the rushing of a river over a waterfall, asked in confirmation. He parted his lips to speak, but the baroness Acclara jumped at the opportunity, pale eyes alight with triumph._

_“Good to see that not all legends are just misconstrued mistakes!” She gloated, sweeping over to the being and standing beside it, folding her arms haughtily. “Now do as you are commanded by your master— Kill him.” Once more, the creature seemed dazed, looking between them slowly. The Noble clutched at its sleeve insistently and pointed to the silent dhampir. “What are you waiting for? Kill the filth, I say!”_

_Abruptly, with a buzzing motion, the summoned one shook her off, flinging the smaller form away like one would a rag. “Don’t touch me so casually.” That **voice—** D grew wary at the cold order, but yet did not take action, watching as the Noblewoman looked up from beneath her curtain of hair, cast on the ground as she was. _

_“How **dare—** ”_

_Her words were choked, for she was no longer on the ground, lifted into the air by her neck._

_The creature spoke to D coolly.  
“She dies?”_

_D thought it was a strange way to phrase it._

_“Only if you make her.”_

* * *

 

“Really? Can’t you get over it, even just a little? You’ve obviously survived, despite all of our attempts to make it otherwise. Don’t you think it would be a sign to count your blessings and stay away from us?”

It was really just a large bit of bluffing on my part, waiting for D to return to camp and deal with her. I wasn’t nearly at the power levels I had been when I first encountered her, but that’s only because I can’t feed as directly. This body requires vitality to sustain it— The life of anything that lives. I am not strong without it, I do not heal without it.

Taking the vitality of a human would be a full course for me, but that is not an option.

My motto is, if I can talk to it, I can’t eat it.

Special situations aside, of course.

But since then, I’d nibbled on the naturally-expiring life of the grass under my feet, the trees and some little woodland animals if I’m particularly desperate. It keeps me sated and functioning, though perhaps not as powerfully as I could be.

Which is why this woman, whom had been nothing to me before, was now someone I could not deal with on my own.

Not without some serious under-handed tactics on my part, anyway.

And thus my stalling until D arrives.

Though, if it came down to it… I never tried to drain one of the Nobility, before.

 

* * *

 

_There was nothing but silence in the clearing, as two people stood across from each other— Across from a head rent from its body, hair straggled and bloody hiding the expression on the foe’s face._

_Nothing, just waiting to see what would happen…_

_A loud growling sound echoed throughout the area._

_Suddenly, the dark being’s shoulders slumped, and a hand patted the spot where its belly would be._

_“God am I hungry.” It suddenly sighed largely, hanging its head morosely. “And it’s been so long since I had human food, too.”_

_D was a little nonplussed, he’d admit, but he deemed it no longer his concern, and turned back to his horse wordlessly._

_Then the thing **sputtered.**_

_“O-Oi, now! You’re just going to leave me here? Call me out in the middle of my television show, have me kill some stuck-up princess and then you just drop me out here like a naked baby in the woods?”_

_“Not my problem.” He said shortly, swinging onto his horse._

_The creature sagged, holding its hands up in indignation. “What, so you aren’t going to take responsibility?” It huffed after him as he steered his mount away. “I thought you were the nice one between the two of you. That’s why I picked your side, not because you summoned me. But here you are, just going to leave me in a world I have no clue about… Alone? Ugh. Fine.” It had turned away from him by then, fuming and muttering to itself, so it had never noticed the rider’s back freeze as he came to a stop. It stomped off into the brush, grumbling. “Okay, so I’m somewhere. I know that much. I can’t be nowhere. I could always follow the stars, but something tells me that Polaris isn’t the north star anymore. Oh fiddlesti— Uuf.”_

_Something smacked it straight in the back, between the shoulder blades, and it jumped around, incensed. It picked the object up, about to apparently beat someone with it, when a voice called evenly. “You can carry that.”_

_They looked down at what it held, and realized it was a leather saddlebag. Realizing what just happened, they jogged after the hunter, and looked up at him in confused chagrin._

_“…So.” They began slowly. “…I’m a servant of some kind?”_

_The dhampir’s eyes narrowed, but stayed directed straight ahead, keeping the horse at a stately walk. “No. You said it yourself. You don’t serve me.” He negated._

_“…So.” Again, the confused one started out carefully, but a little more quietly this time. “Something like a… Partner, then?” It asked, and the tentative honesty caused the hunter’s eyes to hood for a brief moment._

_“…for now.” He replied._

_The creature hummed.  
“For now, then.” _

* * *

“I don’t understand.” Acclara sneered, sweeping forth with another rake of her nails. She still wasn’t attacking seriously— Or was just toying with me— but it served my purposes either way, so I entertained her with some close calls. A glance past my throat here, a hair’s breadth from taking my head off… Payback, I suppose. “It was the Nobility that wrought the spell, that honed it to call your being into existence. And yet it is not the Nobility that you serve. What idiocy is this?” She vaulted over my head, and I rolled forward to avoid the strike at my unprotected back. Dammit D, get here fast…

I laughed at her. “Call me into existence? I’m sorry to tell you, sweetheart, but I didn’t just poof into existence the moment D used the magical key to nowhere or whatever. It didn’t _create_ a wraith to be controlled, it brought one that _already existed._ And honed?” I snickered. “Honed in what way? That spell couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. If you would have gotten a _real_ wraith, it wouldn’t even be able to talk to you. They’re things, great big cuddly balls of malcontent that can be given simple orders. But this magnificent _spell_ of yours…” More cutting laughter broke into my sentence, and my clutching of the stomach was a pretense to evade the suddenly-angry blow aimed at my head. “…didn’t even bother to consider that, while the body may be a wraith’s, _what is inside of it isn’t!_ ”

My shout disoriented her for a brief second that gave me the upper hand. I struck out with my palm to her jaw, sending her skull to sit at an ugly angle and her body to slam into a tree a few yards out.

The next laugh was one of relief for two reasons: One, that was an extremely lucky hit and I should play the lottery sometime soon; And two, because D finally came back.

He neatly melted from the shadows beside me, sword already in-hand and glancing at me mutedly. His face showed no expression, but it was always the body language; He was asking if I was okay.

I motioned to the sluggishly-standing vampire graciously.

“Just in time, D. All yours.” I informed, more relief becoming evident now that I was able to perform my duty of watching his back, instead of head-on confrontation. While, admittedly, people are easier to stab in the front than in the back— softer stuff, better stabbing— that generally means they can stab me in the soft parts too, so that’s not the way I want to fight when I know I’m at such a severe disadvantage.

That, and watching D work is a _dream._

It was almost like he was reading my mind, when he dashed over to aim a slash at the woman’s throat. He glanced over his shoulder at me, and I pointedly didn’t look his way, kicking dirt and humming a ditty under my breath. Couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket with my voice like this, but eh.

“Don’t you know when to just lay down and _die?”_

I winced a little, at that. Hearing people make those kinds of remarks about D still wasn’t easy, even all these years later— Hold on, _how_ long was it already?

Shaking the errant thought from my head, I looked around idly, and noticed a rock by my foot. It was pretty big, but small enough for me to hold in one hand, I found out as I stooped to pick it up. I palmed it, musing, and then looked to the skirmish occurring a few feet away. It really wasn’t going anywhere, huh…

Wondering if D was purposely waiting until I’d do something, I sighed theatrically, lifted my arm…

…and remembered I’m a crap shot.

So, instead of making an ass out of myself, and also instead of letting go of the rock…

I rushed past the scene of violence, coming to a tree tall and thick; One foot found purchase against it for value of the speed at which I’d hit it, and the other was a little less so. But that was all I needed.

I launched away from the tree, rebounding straight for where D had evidently herded his opponent. He can never just let me sit one out… I can never just sit one out, though, either. Heh.

With the rock in one hand, I swung my arm around as hard as I could, landing a blow to the back of the vampire’s head that probably would have killed any lesser being. But her head merely just jutted forth at another awkward angle, and the rock crumbled from my hand into dust.

It was enough for D, however.

Just as she turned to me, shrieking her outrage into the night air, a sleek sword of silver pierced straight through her chest, and the heart that laid within it. Her expression quickly turned to one of shock and horror, as the blade was cut diagonally upward through her body, and her head had once more been riven from her shoulders.

She turned to dust, as she had so many other times, but…

Shaking my hand out and sighing at the soreness of it, I muttered, “D, this can’t just be a fiftieth coincidence. Someone’s been going through the trouble of bringing her back all these times. But she isn’t someone of particular importance, is she? She wouldn’t have been looking to call for me if she wasn’t hurting for extra power. Or, perhaps it’s an order from someone else? Either way, she isn’t the mind behind it. Maybe a lover or some sort of family…”

I was jolted from my speculations by my hand suddenly hurting a lot more, and I looked aside to see D holding it up between a thumb and a forefinger, looking at it in blatant disapproval. I didn’t understand why at first, but then I saw the tiny droplets of black hanging from my fingertips. Whoops.

“Don’t worry about that.” I quickly snatched my hand back. “Wounds are nothing. But, hey.” I grinned beneath my hood, turning the topic away. “At least now you can’t scold me for not having a weapon, huh? Just pick up a rock. Works even on the Nobility.”

D remained wordless, up until he clicked his tongue, beckoning his horse from where he’d left it, under a copse of trees. He made to mount the black beast first, as usual, but hesitated as he grasped onto the saddle, rocking on his feet slightly. “…you’re getting sloppy.” He said, and there was a pregnant silence after the fact. But he merely swept onto the steed and said nothing more, holding a hand out as per the norm.

I reached out to take it, and hissed under my breath as I realized I’d given him that very same hand. He’d grabbed it without reserve, and I grit my teeth against the pain shooting up through my wrist as I mounted the saddle behind him.

I made sure not to show any other reaction to it, however. I knew that, in itself, was his words without words, pointing out my injury in lieu of speech… Emphasizing my ‘sloppiness’.

Holding onto his belt, as usual, once we started moving, I carefully refrained from tapping either the horse or the man in front of me. While the horse was largely cybernetic, it still held parts of organic life that called out to me. And even the thought of taking life from D was appalling in itself.

So I just clutched my hand firmly to the leather strap around him, and kept quiet.

As long as I remained useful, I would remain as well.


	6. ~Spiders Web~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which a face could be put to the name, except for the name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It had to happen sooner or later, and a lot more fun stuff can happen after, sooo. :D

"This is an interesting turn of events, wouldn't you say?" An airy whisper drifted through my hair, and a smile full of dangerous fangs went uncomfortably close to my ear. "The partner of the legendary dhampir right here, caught in my little trap. Why, the legendary dhampir even _having_ a partner at all is news to me!" That voice giggled, and it echoed irritatingly in my eardrums. "Really, what's more pathetic than a half-breed and a plain little ol' human teaming up together? It's like a two-man walking pity-party." A not-too-delicate snort was given, and my eye twitched with the sound. Is _that_ what he thought I was? "What are you, some sort of morality pet that keeps his Noble blood in line?"

I stared straight down at the ground beneath me, trying to hold as still as possible against the thin strings suspending me in the air. One little slip on my part, and they would cut into me. I promised D that my blood would not be spilt if I could ever help it, so even now, I needed to uphold that pledge.

That, and, well.

I kinda like not being in pain.

Just sayin’.

So here I was, the threads wrapped around my limbs and torso every which-way, with my only hope of survival possibly only finding out I was gone now. Then again, D is magnificent ~~in general~~ at exceeding expectations, so perhaps I might get out of this one yet.

“What, no words for me?” Spindly fingers forced me to face my captor, and large burgundy eyes peered at me laughingly. “A quiet one, are you? That isn’t as fun as I wanted it to be. You can give me _something_ , can’t you? I can’t even see your face, little sweetling… But your blood smells _delicious_.”

I didn’t even have enough time to start panicking. Two spider legs ripped down the expanse of my gate-keeper robes, and the enchantment upon it broke without a hassle. The strips of cloth fell to the floor, and I was now exposed in my regular clothes as the woman I was.

Those two eyes sparked, and the arachnoid floated over a little more on his web, pressing close. “I _see_ ,” The voice chuckled eerily, and I nearly began retching when arms and legs secured me to him, landing in places too dangerous for comfort. “It was smart of him, to keep a face like this hidden from others. Who knows what kinds of people would like to sample from such a sweet little flower?” I went ramrod-stiff when that semi-human face dipped to my throat, and fangs went tap-tap-tap along my artery. “That’s okay, though.” He started shushing, and it was only then that I noticed that I’d started keening softly in the back of my throat, my instincts silently screaming for my partner. “You don’t need to worry about that- I’ll drain you til you’re a husk, and your body will host my children most gloriously. However…” A hand drifted to my leg, and the webs suddenly lifted it. “I may decide to only sip- It’s so much more exhilarating, with living flesh…”

Right here, I did start panicking- My bared teeth began growing out, even though my body refused my orders to finally begin struggling against the webbing. He told me to not shed any blood…

Teeth, jagged and piercing, sank into me, and my voice abruptly rose in my throat as a shout. That must have been the tide-turner- Two flashes of silver flickered in my vision, and the arachnid screeched, suddenly falling from me to the ground. I just stared at the thin legs still hooked to the web, lifeless and hanging limply. What in the…?

I snapped my gaze to the happenings on the floor far beneath me, and saw that D had arrived, possibly drawn to my location from my cry earlier.

The monster was snarling now, crazed and merely dragging itself along with the two human appendages it had left. But the hunter gave him no chance for escape. With a swift dash forward and a smooth swing of his sword arm, his blade bit into the thorax of the creature. Then, without as much as a change in expression- not that his expressions really changed in any other instances- he ripped the blade straight up its back, splitting it open and ending its life with only a faint sound of terror heard.

Not bothering with it any further than that, he then looked up at me, and I think he didn’t recognize me for a second, with how his gaze had frozen over. But, as it turned out, he knew exactly who I was, because he’d called up to me with that same, monotone exasperation he normally uses when I get into trouble.

“Are you all right?”

Then I noticed the blood beginning to drip down my form to the floor, right in front of him. Oh. Yeah. That.

“He tried eating me, that’s all,” I assured him, and even _I_ thought I sounded strange, without my voice being masked. I’d gotten so used to just being _me_ , that being female came as quite the shock… “I think the web’s enchanted, though. It tightens if I try to move at all.”

His eyes hardened even further, and I wondered if I was somehow in more trouble.

“Hold on, I’ll get you down.”

He lifted his left hand, and an aged face raised from his palm, a scratchy voice coming along as well.

“I was just having a real good nap, so why did you- _Oh._ Oh-ho- _ho_! Look’t that! It’s a girl! My, isn’t that _provocative_ , being stretched and put on display like that… Just makes you wanna take a bite, eh D?”

His host wasn’t amused.

“Just get rid of the spell. She’s injured.”

That wrinkled old face peered up at me, and I reacted automatically by smiling.

“Hi Lefty.”

He blinked.

“Good lord, it _is_ her. She’s a, well, _she._ How the blazes did you hide _that_ , huh?” His commentary made me slightly embarrassed, and I laughed nervously.

“Just get me down, please?”

“All right, all right,” He sighed. “Why am I the only one having a conniption over this, though? We’ve been talking to a faceless hood all this time, when we could have been…”

“Do you want me to cut you off?”

Now D _really_ wasn’t amused, glaring down at his errant appendage. Left finally relented, heaving yet another sigh and opening his mouth wide. Suddenly, I felt tugging- The air around me was being pulled almost _gently_ into the vortex of his mouth, and the webbing stringing me up began slackening at a rapid pace. I let out a short yelp as gravity greedily assumed its reign over me once more, and everything became a blur as I fell…

Of course, despite the fact that he was miffed at his talkative appendage, D was still a nice guy, so he was beneath me and catching me before I could hit the ground with my face. I puffed out a wheeze when I hit him, because he’s pretty sturdy- Not much different than hitting the ground…

His arms caught around my back to steady me, and his feet shifted slightly to accommodate the extra weight braced against his frame. My cheek squished against his shoulder, and the slightly-rumpled fabric of that weird striped scarf he wore draped around his neck. I think I need to wash that, later…

“Uuh.” I groaned, peeling my face from his body armor. I looked up at him, and blinked dazedly as I was struck with his beauty at such a close proximity, before shaking myself out of it and beaming. “Thank you, D. You got here just in time.”

He tilted his head to the side strangely, eyes moving somewhere by my shoulder. “I don’t think I did.” He murmured, and it took me a little longer than it should have to realize that he was talking about my injury. I was running on adrenaline at the moment, so the pain hadn’t set in yet, but oh _hell_ is this gonna hurt later… He lifted a hand and moved some of my blood-matted hair away from the rend, and it was probably what saved me a lot of trouble, for the black started pouring out with renewed vigor, as what was impeding it had been removed. That clawed hand reached back, into his pouch, and procured a folded cloth. He pressed it to the wound gently, and then with a bit more firmness, when blood still kept leaking out from beneath. It was a little uncomfortable, because the pressure he needed to use was more than what a human was supposed to be capable of- Which meant that he needed to hold me still with the other arm, and damn am I small compared to him…

I smiled tentatively, and he looked back at me, expression faintly questioning. “Well, it could have been worse.” If my arms were free, I would have scratched the back of my head. I always get this little itch, when I’m anxious… “I mean, I don’t have anything against spiders, but no. I don’t want to have little spiders. Not that I even could if I wanted to, but I suppose the eggs would have hatched whether I had the viable body parts or not… There could always be- Eh? D?” I stopped my rambling in time to notice his silent studying of my face, and cleared my throat a little uncomfortably. “What is it?”

He shifted his shoulders back a little, as if putting distance between us for him to see. “…This is the first time I’ve seen what you look like.” The dhampir explained quietly, if not a little distracted in his perusal. “It wasn’t what I was expecting.”

I laughed slightly nervously.

“What? Expecting some fierce, scary monster underneath it all? Nope. Just me. Disappointing, ain’t it?” I threw a cheesy little grin at him, and I was actually a little relieved, that it came out- I was able to show expressions, and see others' reactions to them.

He made a noncommittal sound.

“Not really.” He negated, and then paused. “Why?”

Then I started chuckling nervously, a little too brightly.

“Well…” Gah, why did he have to ask? “It’s sort of…” I sighed. “Don’t take me the wrong way when I say me being female has caused many many problems for me in the past. The way people react to me, the way people treat me, their first impressions of me- It’s all dictated first and foremost by what gender I am. And, seeing as this world is full of a bunch of assholes, I needed to prepare myself against it as well as vice-versa. So, you had me and the gatekeeper robes. Now you just have me.” I paused. “Which probably limits my usefulness, now that I think about it…” I turned my head, wincing at the tugging of my wound, and looked at the tattered, ruined folds of black sitting a few feet away. I sighed. “Well, it was pretty good while it lasted…”

“What are you talking about?” I honestly hadn’t expected D to react to my asides, but when he did, I’d turned back to see a particularly mute expression on his face. He returned my gaze seriously, straightly. “We’ll need to pick up a new cloak for you, at the next town. It won’t have the same effect, but it will suffice enough to protect you.” He then stared past me, at the remains of the monster that had nabbed me while he wasn’t looking. “Even with your gender hidden, you weren’t safe.”

Lefty then spoke up from against my neck, slightly muffled.

“Yeah, and you’re a lot easier to look at like this. But that goes without saying. Mostly because D’s too frozen solid to say it. So I’ll say it instead. Y’know, for the both of us. Girl, you’re _smokin_ _’_ _._ ”

Making a funny face, I watched as D sighed, and pressed his hand just a smidgen harder, to chastise the parasitic creature. “Don’t listen to him. He’s just a troublemaker.” He muttered. Then, making me squeak, he gently spun me around, and hooked his other hand under my legs, lifting me off the ground easily. “He makes a valid point, though. As did you. You’re going to stir a lot of trouble, when we head into a populated area.”

I directed my gaze downwards.

“Sorry. I’ll stay outside the city limits, then.”

He exhaled, and started for the exit. “I always thought partners were supposed to come in pairs.”

That mild, unassuming comment made my heart start hammering out a cheery tune against my ribcage, which I was almost positive he was aware of. But, I don’t think I minded-...


	7. ~Devour~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which D understands that there are some things about himself he can't control. 
> 
>  
> 
> ~~...also in which the protagonist really needs to just confess or something, 'cause this is getting frustrating even for the person writing this.~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was in the middle of writing something completely different when this literally made me stop what I was doing, open a new document and get it all down in one sitting so feverish I was probably possessed or something.  
> ...Or something. X3

_I didn’t recognize any of the surroundings, of where I was. It was a simple town, nothing special about it. A little bereft of people, but… But everything was painted, to my eyes— Grief, pain was splattered over the ground in indescribable colors, unseen to the naked eye. Someone had severed an artery, and the taste of it around me gave rise the urge to feed…_

_I backed up a few steps, and quickly looked down to my hands; Skeletal structures, translucent and barely visible in the mass of tattered darkness amassing the trunk of my form._

_No, no no, I wasn’t like this anymore— I **fought** for my corporeal form, I took this body and **mastered it—**_

_There was a faint sound, behind me._

**_The cut vein._ **

_I lashed back at the instincts, cowing them into submission before turning around to find the source of the noise. That was how I came to find where, exactly, all the denizens of this little countryside village had gone._

_The fact that this sight was familiar to me disturbed me more than anything, at the moment._

_A circle of judgement, faceless people picking up whatever debris was nearby._

_Surrounding something, something spurting the pain and the desolation—…_

_I’d attempted to immediately break through the line of backs facing me, but I merely phased through them, straight to the center._

_Cut vein._

_Blood, life, despair sluggishly bleeding out, oozing into the air, moistening my mouth and drawing me closer, closer…  
Something small was on the ground, hunched, muddy and past the point of being recognizable as anything other than a vaguely human form. _

_A small, human form._

_Weak._

_A child._

_The specifics of this exact situation hit me as hard as the first rock did, passing straight through me to beat against a diminutive back. The form swayed, but made no sound._

_Something snapped._

_“Stop!” I roared, uncaring of the logic telling me that it was useless. My ribcage rattled and shook with the force of it, and I heedlessly threw myself forward to cover the child._

_Hopeless, all of it futile— Perceived solid objects passed through me to strike at the young one, this time causing a small grunt to be emitted, but little else._

_Instinct and spiritual existence melded together in the heat of insanity, burning from the friction of panic and desperation grating against each other. Go to the vein, cover it, staunch it, feed from it, stop it, stop it stop it stop it—_

_Rough, trembling words echoed forth, still so dual-toned and dismissible to the mortal ear._

_“Ignore them. Ignore it, it’ll go away.” Whether the child would react to the impassioned hisses of a being of death and decay, I knew not. My presence, all of it could be brushed off so easily by the five ephemeral senses._

_My touch, most likely unregistered._

_My voice, unheard._

_The sight of me hidden by a bowed head, probably for the best anyway._

_But action needed to be taken, or I would…_

_“I am here.” I whispered to the now-trembling form, red blood flashing into existence from inflicted wounds that vanished seconds later. “I am here now, but I wasn’t. Don’t mistake a dream for a memory. These days are long past, and they will never happen again. You are strong, you are powerful and you continue even when—…” Strange syllables of a forgotten language spilled from lips that barely had shape, as raw urges rose to the surface on a raging tide. I kept my head stubbornly above the water. “You continue on. Nobody on this earth has the god-given right to tell you that you have no business being here!”_

_Everything shattered, after that._

_The people, the ground beneath us, the houses and the sky broke into shards and fell into the abyss, where we floated, simple and insignificant in the dark._

_It was easiest, this way._

_Slowly, I drew away from the child, and prodded gently, “Okay?”_

_There was a shift, and suddenly a bowed head was raised stiffly, like it was unused to doing so._

_A face cute even by the standards of kittens stared up at me, silver eyes dull and tear-tracks made all the more visible as fresh liquid spilled over._

_My hands may have been nothing at all, may have been nothing but bone and rotten bandage, but they still cupped those dirt-smeared cheeks as tenderly as I could manage._

_Instinct may tell me to comfort the lost, the hopeless, guide them into death as one would a knife into water._

_But it was **I** who perverted it from its purpose, the one whom they affected; **I** am the one to guide them into **life**._

_Gradually, that face melted into the one I knew, and then I fell away in particles, as well._

* * *

 

Contrary to most experiences along those lines, I awakened with full awareness of the events that happened that night.

My eyes snapped open, and I pushed away from my bedroll, knowing very well what was going to happen next.

The echo was always the worst.

And D would be quick to follow into the realm of reality, if he hadn’t already, so I needed to get out of there as fast as possible.

Boots bit into the underbrush steadily as I raced away from camp, soon dissipating altogether as tendrils of darkness licked at the air, at the _life_ around me instead.

I kept running.

 

* * *

 

By the time his eyes opened, she was already gone.

It happened slowly, at first. Eyelids cracked open, just enough to let the moonlight peek in. He didn’t need to look at the empty bedroll to notice the absence; The lack of steady breathing was enough.

It wasn’t the first time something such as this had occurred for him, but it was the first time someone else had been witness to it. At first, he just assumed that her appearance was his mind trying to create some figment out of what was real and reliable. A benevolent party to change what shouldn’t have happened.

Silently, he froze over, as he thought over that exact sentence.

Was that how he saw it, now? Did he believe it was something that ‘should not be’, after so many long centuries of accepting it as fact and leaving it at that?

Something was changing, and he was unchanging. It couldn’t happen. It was the way he is, and nothing stood in the way of it before. His existence was not one of joy or fulfillment, but it wasn’t one he was willing to give up so easily.

…unless…

A loud, lonely call of a beast resounded from far off, and he automatically sat up, thoughts brushed away so he could measure the distance between he and it, and whether it would leave their camp alone.

…Their camp, is that right…?

Rough laughter entered his ears unpleasantly, and his left hand sneered at him.

“You hear that, D? The pale-skinned monster’s out on the prowl, tonight.” In the beginning, the hunter thought he was speaking plainly, but everything fit together when he added, “Do you think she’ll be back before morning? A good hunting dog brings game home, you think she’ll do that too?”

His fingers crushed the face risen in his palm with more force than he originally intended, because the insidious doubt the parasite was speaking of was overwhelmed by recollection.

No, it was as real as he was, though distorted, and something was different.

Whether he accepted it or not…

 

* * *

 

**It was always the same, because the truth of memories did not change.**

**It didn’t take long for the first flare of pain to come, along the ribs in his back. It was familiar, that pain. And he knew where the next one would come from, and the next, and the one after that…**

**But then there was the error in his memory, a glitch that had never been there before. Like the scratching of a record, it quietly reverberated against him, soft and even in frequency. The buzz came closer, but his limbs were too frozen stiff to move.**

**The error did not care.**

**Things still struck him, but it was as if the ability to feel physical pain had been pulled from his skin, like a blanket from his sleeping body.**

**Then, there was a voice.**

**Empathy was entrenched within it, and it bent and arced with the words flowing forth. It bore no resemblance to the voice of any man or woman, but it bore… Comfort.**

**Each inflection was empty and hollowed out, like a special place for him to stay in, where nothing could touch him— It calmed him, and his current self lifted his former form’s head.**

**The scene from earlier was gone, destroyed, everything now filled with a dark that smothered all possible detail about him. Twisting, pearlescent light shined in a form with a head and two arms, in front of him, floating. The edges of the radiance were marred black, softly, and those arms that had warmed his shoulders now pressed hard, curved hands to his face in a touch gentler than this version of him ever knew.**

**He’d felt it before, however, elsewhere— And he was soon returned to the form that fit the remembrance.**

**That very change caused the darkness around him to surge, as a part of him as any limb…**

**…and broke her to pieces, too.**

* * *

 

Fingers dug deeper, and blood idly spilt under nail and skin.

Silver eyes once more peered into the dark, dulled from something different than the innocent, pained confusion of a child exposed to violence.

_“I don’t get to have a life. Not like you.”_

He’d said that to someone once.

It was reality, and it would be, whether he denied it or not.

He recalled those words now, and while their truth remained unbreakable, the reasoning that had been so clear up until now swirled in chaos, refusing to give him a straight answer either way. There were the irrefutable facts about his nature, and yet that didn’t seem like _enough_ , now. The hunter knew that he may one day become the hunted, and in this world there was no salvation for those who could not save themselves. The time when he loses control would be the time when someone else would be sent for his life, and there would be no other option. There would be no rescue, no redemption, no _absolution._

But a wraith could live its life out as a woman, somehow forming a personality and a delicately ambivalent code with which to continue its existence by.

 _Her_ existence by.

Called upon, unknowing and lost, and yet able to build so much from absolutely _nothing at all…_

D found himself ironically amazed, at the faint whirlpool of envy and gratitude warring against each other inside.

Envy that she had accomplished that which he’d simply taken for granted was impossible.

And that strange gratitude, for causing him to realize it.

Unnatural and malformed he was, but—

_“Nobody on this earth has the god-given right to tell you that you have no business being here!”_

—there were things that even he wanted to believe in.


	8. ~Truth~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which D protects his partner in whatever way he can.  
> ...even from things incorporeal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I, I just.  
> Uwaaaah. ~sobs~
> 
> Also, first chapter that stole a setting instead of creating a new one.  
> Blame the movie. DX

It was silent for a time, right after blade had pierced through immortal body— However, the holder of the blade never flinched, never had a flicker move across his face, whereas the one he’d pierced looked stunned through the pain.

“…Why?” A rough, grief-ridden voice uttered, face contorted with sorrow. “Why did you miss my heart?”

One smooth motion, and the long blade had been pulled from his body.

Meier stumbled once he had been released, his gaze automatically falling to the woman laid out on the floor, dead. “Charlotte.” It was a single word of mourning, of such profound bereavement that it caused the on-looking blond to bow her head, eyes squeezed shut. Then, he looked up at the other woman, the one staked to the wall, arms spread invitingly like a statue of an angel. But no, this one had been crucified— Thick, black blood oozed and dropped to the floor like glassy lacquer, sitting there for a little while before rising back into the air, to return to the body it belonged to. Like some sick, demented water fountain, or show…

With a whirl, the Noble flared his cape, fading from view and reappearing near the girl, ripping the metal stakes out of the granite and catching her as she tumbled forth.

“…How could you know how this feels, dhampir?” Meier started lowly, looking over at Charlotte, then back to the inhuman, eternally-bleeding body in his arms. “Had you ever fallen in love with a human? I think not.”

The Hunter, D, still stood there, sliding his sword into its sheathe at his back.

“I’d never killed one before, either.”

The dhampir’s words seemed to have the same effect as his blade, because the vampire’s face clouded over with immeasurable grief, if for only a second.

“…No, I wouldn’t expect you to understand. Born from a mortal mother, and a Noble father…” He pivoted on the balls of his feet, standing, holding that dripping form up. In a flash of rippling silver, his hand became metallic claws, poised idly by the girl’s throat. “If you don’t understand, dhampir— Then why do you get to have this girl? What is she to you, that can compare to what Charlotte was to me?”

Still, D made no move, other than to take a few steps closer up the stairwell. The blond bounty hunter standing far off to the side nearly went for her weapon, but her hand was shaking far too much…

The dhampir studied him for a moment— The lost red eyes, the bitter curl to his mouth— before responding coolly.

“I don’t know what she is to me.”

A harsh bark of laughter rose up to the slowly, gradually-crumbling ceiling.

“What honesty you have, Hunter. I cannot fault you for that.” He sneered, but the malice was overridden by the disturbance in his composure. “Then why do you have her? For what reason, do you drag her about your nomadic life, when she could have something stable elsewhere?”

“I don’t know what she is.” D once more spoke up, quick to the chase, tone as solemn as ever. “But I do know that her loss would affect me. And I do know that, if I did not have her, this world would kill her.” Silver eyes pierced into the lamenting Noble, who didn’t seem to expect that answer. “You had spent time with her, Meier.” D’s voice was still calm, still so collected… “She had tried to help you. You must have noticed how different she is, from everyone else. How alike, even, she is to Charlotte. If you’d want to make that comparison.” He glanced to the cooling corpse briefly. “She is not from here— Anywhere around here. And, if she were to be left by herself, this world would destroy her and any of the good she ever brought into it.”

Meier’s countenance twisted again, but this time in regret. “…She helped me.” He echoed numbly. “She helped us. She defended us, even when Carmilla turned on us…” Then, a scowl suddenly turned his mask of grief into one of anger. “I see it now, dhampir. I see your true motives.” Fangs grit and ground against each other, as he forced the words out. “I cannot have my only love, but you get to keep the best of us all to yourself, to make yourself feel more _human_. Isn’t that it, dhampir? This isn’t about the good she brings to the _world_ — It’s about the good she brings to _you!”_

For several heartbeats, nothing was said to that. D yet had to show a reaction, eyes becoming shadowed under the brim of his hat. But speak he did, once he had the words to say.

“…I am alive.” He stated this straightly, without embellishment, and only the slightest of inflections in his tone proving his sincerity. “When I have her, I am not a Vampire Hunter, nor a dhampir. I am D, who is a Hunter, who happens to be half-blooded. Who I am, comes first. I am someone.” But, suddenly his lips downturned ever so slightly, giving his expression a large dose of severity. “She isn’t a saint, Meier. She can’t work miracles. She can’t make a place for me in this world or bring Charlotte back to life. By doing what she can, though, it should be enough for the both of us.” His voice hardened, went half an octave louder; The most emotion he was capable of showing. “If you ask her to do something beyond her limits, she will die trying. And I can’t let you do that.”

Meier’s face crumpled, and he looked down at the wraith in his arms, and then to his dead lover on the floor. “…I will not harm her.” He murmured, a tear marking itself down his cheek. “Charlotte—… Really likes her. And I do, too. Whatever she is, whoever she is… We like her.”

“I like you guys, too.” The both of them snapped their gazes to the source of the weak whisper, to see a deathly pale face giving a wan smile. “I want you to remember, Meier… You too, D.” Her head lolled to the side only very slightly, immobile for the most part. “What’s better? Being born good?... Or striving against instinct, the thing that makes you cursed… To be good? Who can say what’s worth more?” Her eyes struggled to open, to no avail. “Char’s waiting for you, Meier. You know it isn’t polite to make a lady wait.”

Meier ducked his head, touching his forehead to her chest, to feel a heartbeat. Any heartbeat, the signature of a living thing… He started when a hand touched to the back of his head, stroking his hair soothingly.

He nearly sobbed.

D finished his ascent of the stairs, and now stood before the Noble, holding his arms out.

Meier wavered, but placed her in his care, glancing longingly to the unresponsive form just those few feet away. When he moved to pick up his dead lover, though, he was stopped by that voice. “Meier.” The Hunter’s partner called out thinly. “Make sure the two of you are happy, okay? When you get to the City of the Night, just know we’re all looking at the same stars. All the same stars…”

Unconsciously, D and the vampire shared a look. Yes… Between the both of them, they’d thought she was being kind, when speaking of Charlotte as if she were alive. But it seemed she hadn’t even known the woman had been killed, too weak to look upon the rubble that was quickly becoming of the castle, and the bloodless body lain upon the stone floor. Most likely unknowing, in that constant state of near-death she herself had been left in…

Meier did not turn around.

“…We are very grateful. To the both of you.”

His tone was quiet, hiding the turmoil he was feeling with a voice warm with friendship.

When Charlotte’s body was lifted, her hand hung limply, and a ring just a tad too big slipped off her finger. It was a circle of gold as it rolled along the floor, before the tip to a blade met it neatly, partner shifted to one arm, traversing the steel road to be dropped into a gauntlet-clad hand.

D looked at the ring, before slipping it into his pouch.

“…The girl is dead.” He said this, as if to explain. As if he were covering something up… “I will take this to the girl’s father. This will be sufficient, for them.”

Meier understood the tone of voice, the decision he’d made.

He said only one last thing.

“I just hope, dhampir, that your story doesn’t need of an ending such as ours…”

A faint giggle drifted up.

“Eloping with D? How do you elope with the guy that goes all over the place anyway?...”

 

* * *

 

All it had taken was the death of the phantom of Carmilla to set everything in motion— The ceilings started crumbling, paintings falling off of walls, mirrors shattering and walls falling in…

Once D and the bounty hunter Leila made it a safe distance away from the ongoing wreckage, the blond had peered in at the parcel wrapped up in D’s cape, sleeping soundly after having been administered some mysterious medicine.

“…Tough girl.” Leila noted bluntly, a little gruffly. “You should have seen her. She fought like hell, when she heard that Carmilla was going to kill you once she came back.” She scoffed a little approvingly, shaking her head with a rueful smile. “When I think about it now, it’s sort of funny. She’s like a normal girl, and then she nearly knocks down half the castle just trying to get to you. Bet the ghost bitch didn’t expect her to put up that much of a fight.”

D shifted his arms around the one he held, before swinging up onto his horse with no help needed from his hands.

He said nothing though, so she took this as leave to continue. “And that speech— I suppose you aren’t half-bad, are you?”

Her coming-down chattiness was broken off, however, in favor of the sound of distance roaring, of whining machines, of grinding gears… Leila snapped her head back around, to see one of the elevators attached to the castle still functioning, with a single figure standing in it— Holding a body…

The awakening one mumbled a bit, eyes cracking open at the loud disturbance to her slumber.

“…The hell is that?” She grunted softly, before flicking her eyes wider. “Is that… Did they get the ship working?” With a hand braced on D’s shoulder, she clumsily sat herself in the saddle in front of him, sideways, in order to see the scene of destruction and rebirth behind him. She’d winced, realizing that she still had holes in the palms of her hands, idly oozing black liquid. But she still kept her attention on the bright, flaring engines, being activated after so many years of disuse…

The beautiful, tower-like structure groaned and strained against the docking stands around it, lifting from them, and then steadily ascending into the sky. Her breath caught in her throat in anticipation, but what little strength she’d gathered to watch quickly fled, and she started falling over in the saddle.

A dark-armored arm caught her across the belly, and she let out a sigh of relief, leaning against him a little.

“D… You have better eyes than me.” She started on only a mere breath, lips still turned up at the edges in excitement. “Can you see? If they make it?”

He couldn’t deny her; He turned his head, and lifted it to the sky, catching the flickering lights disappearing far into the atmosphere.

“ _Come on, you can make it…! Please make it!”_

The hissed encouragement of Leila, whom also seemed to be caught up in it, only caused the girl’s heart to beat faster in trepidation. And he couldn’t bring himself to disappoint it. He couldn’t.

“…Mm.” He made a sound to the affirmative. It wasn’t easy to lie, either…

She was quiet for a little bit, obviously in preparation for speaking.

“D…” She started slowly, softly. “I know how you feel on the subject, and I’m not trying to be insensitive by asking, but… Do you think they’ll be happy? A human, and a Noble…”

Faintly, distantly, his heart hurt, and he decided he should think on Meier’s words more.

“Where they are… Yes, they should be happy.”

D had lied to her, and he’d done it intentionally. He didn’t know why, though, or… Perhaps, he did.

Right now, she had smiled at the thought of someone else’s happiness. She had hoped, above everything, that those two would get the ending a love as great as theirs would deserve…

…So he gave it to her.


	9. ~Gamble~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which D is upstaged, both by his partner and another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I had to.  
>  That is my story and I am sticking to it~ :D

_Hooves churned up clods of earth as D’s horse was pushed forth, the equine’s breathing deep and heady to supply what little organs possessed with oxygen. Even at such a high speed, there were no blurs, and the leaves on the trees could have been counted by him as he went past, if he had a mind to. But he was dead-set on reaching his destination, and now…_

_He knew sending his partner off as advance party was a bad idea, but she’d insisted and arguing with her would only win him a headache. But the true nature of their latest assignment had been revealed to him, and he was submitted to the fact that he’d sent someone he trusted into a trap._

_And so he made all the haste he could afford to get there, **before** something bad would happen…_

_If it hadn’t already._

 

* * *

 

“Holy hell, that’s so cute. Look at it, all tiny and with those big eyes…”

I watched as the tapir-like creature shuffled over, black and grey fur bristling curiously as it peered back at me. A hand took me by the shoulder and pulled me back, however. Both the creature and I turned to the owner of it to deliver a dirty look in unison, but then I blinked and smiled, once I saw who it was. “Well then. Take a gander at this— I didn’t know we frequented the same deep, dank caves, Balthazar.”

“I was simply in the area.” The obviously-displaced Noble replied ambiguously, and gestured to the little monochromatic bundle of cute. “I wouldn’t touch that, however. A single prick of its hair follicles will have your brain searing to the inside of your skull.”

While I highly doubted that a Noble would just ‘be in the area’, I let it go, because he’d more than proven his benevolent nature. To me, anyway. D’s a little harder to convince, on certain things… “What, so it’s adorable _and_ it can melt someone’s brain? I need one of these.” I looked back to the animal, just to see it stop snarling at Balthazar with wicked teeth and look back up at me with those innocent eyes. Oh, a creature after my own heart~

“…I don’t think your partner would be partial to that.” The Noble advised wryly, stepping past me and shielding me with a shoulder. “Rather, I had heard that there was someone in the local village with a grudge, against you and your hunter friend. Once I caught wind that there was a job set up for you as well, I had no choice but to see it as exactly that: A set up.”

I stared at him for a moment, pondering the different hues of red his eyes contained as he glanced over his shoulder at me, before uttering blankly, “So our newest employer wants to turn our brains into jello? That’s not nice.” Sighing, I quirked a half-smile at the awaiting creature. “That means we’re on opposite sides, huh? Sad, but I guess I’m not gonna be able to smother you with snuggles. Damn.”

It understood our words, obviously, for the fuzzy, big-eyed cave-dweller let out an ear-piercing shriek of displeasure— Then its fur rippled, and it’s body extended, growing until it stood more than a foot and a half taller than even Balthazar. That tiny face was now large and distended, slobbering between those gnashing teeth far too big for its maw. Little paws were now elongated fingers, six on each paw, with glistening claws raking forth, clenched and unclenched as if… Struggling?

My eyes widened and I quickly latched onto my Noble friend’s elbow, as he drew his arm back to strike. “No,” I bit out, heart hammering as the situation sunk in. “Not yet. Balthazar, you know what this is? It’s… Unnatural.”

He’d frozen when I’d stopped him, but slowly eased out of his aggressive stance, angling himself back to meet my gaze.

The mutated creature let out a warbling yowl, but did nothing more than stamp its feet on the dusty floor, as if in impatience.

“…I’d noticed a certain amount of… Hesitation.” He admitted, eyes darting between us edgily. “It isn’t anything that will change the situation, though.” When I looked to him for explanation, he sighed and gave me the requested elaboration. “It’s an old technology from the Nobility, one of the few that humans managed to replicate with their more antiquated techniques.” He murmured quietly, almost in regret. “In essence, it seizes a biological specimen, either created or naturally born, by certain DNA strands and… Well, those details aren’t very pretty, but it’s supposed to create a living puppet, so-to-speak. A task is set out for the specimen, and it has no choice but to carry it through.” His voice lowered, and the matted beast let out a mournful gurgle. “Whoever has its ‘controls’ can edit the specimen’s DNA to suit the situation, as you have just seen. Once the task is complete, someone merciful would leave the creature to live the rest of its days in peace. Or, since mercy is in a worldwide shortage… Once the task is completed or failed, the specimen is, well, undone. That’s the simple way of saying it.”

Instincts, once slithering in the background, reared their heads and demanded something be done. “…so death is really the only option for it, now. Is that what you’re saying?” I sighed heavily. “It just depends on how it is given.”

Balthazar seemed to notice my own reluctance, and said gently, “I can do it. You and D are the wronged parties, in this. I can deal with the collateral damage.”

I don’t know why, but the offer struck me with the heft of surprise, and I found myself shaking my head. “No, I got it. It might not want to hurt people, but you’re the one out of the two of us it can do damage to. But… Thank you, anyway.” I inclined my head, hoping that my eyes could convey the gratitude where my words had failed me, and returned my attention to the shifting, churning creature.

I walked closer to it quietly, without hurry or any sudden movements. I felt the weight of Balthazar’s questioning, slightly-profound gaze as I now stood under the creature’s shadow, unnatural heat emanated as its molecules were sped up to keep the transformation as it was… Even if there was somehow a way to free it, it wouldn’t live much longer, anyway.

The brightest of candles burn out the fastest, after all…

I looked up at it, the arched spine as it was forced to be bipedal, and the saliva plopping to the ground near my feet. This… This was someone attempting to play god, and it was not forgivable. Not to my instincts, not to my mind, and most certainly not to the heart I had, crying out in pity to the poor thing.

Nothing deserved a life like this. Nothing.

 

* * *

 

_Balthazar watched with great curiosity, both the girl and the beast as they stood toe-to-toe, one so much larger than the other… He had been questioning her sanity until the thing had given her its attention, doing nothing more than bringing itself to eye-level. Then, she spoke, and he was once more drawn forth a step by the beckoning her words spilled into the damp air._

_“…you just wanted to be, huh?” She spoke to it softly, and that large head dipped lower, to look at her with intelligent eyes. They were pained, yet… “Live like the rest of your kind. Burrow some tunnels, catch something to eat, sleep a little bit. Have a normal existence, never see the light of day. Well, I’m gonna tell you something, sweetheart. You’re gonna have it. You’re gonna have all that, because I’m going to give it to you. Okay?”_

_Her hands lifted, and he took another step, this time in alarm as she took the disfigured head into her grasp. Almost instantaneously, black started running from her eyes and the corner of her mouth, and possibly her ears from how her hair suddenly became sticky— But she smiled as if to ignore it all, and said, “You go and have a good life now, okay? Go have a litter of fuzzballs, and name one of them after me. That’d be pretty cool, wouldn’t it? Keep them safe and all that. Do what you were meant to, not what someone else made you do.”_

_The beast shook, and the distinct sound of bones rattling echoed throughout the cave, from where the Noble could not tell. Then, it simply… Fell. Gravity suddenly seemed to be too much for it, for it crumpled right on the spot, and by the time its head touched the floor, it had reverted back to the tiny, furry shape of an animal._

_He was amazed, thinking she’d somehow reversed the process— But then he noticed that her skin glowed like a flame had been lit from within, eyes alight and somehow almost **lovely** —…_

_The blood that had escaped her eyes drew back into her, diluted by the few tears moistening them, as did the rest of it, like the injury never happened._

_The creature was not breathing._

_A chill settled in his bones as he understood this, realizing that the dhampir D’s partner could not be anything but as deadly as he himself. To kill with just a touch, like that… To **feed** off of it…_

_Balthazar hadn’t noticed that he approached until his hand had fallen upon her shoulder, and something inside warned him to stay away from something like her. He paid it no heed, for how could he fear a creature gentle enough to mourn the death of an adversary?..._

_“…I’m kinda wishing D did something really mean to our employer.” She muttered in response to his gesture of comfort, kicking at the ground in frustration. “Like cut his belt so his breeches fell off. In public. And pushed him into a pig trough. And—”_

_His hand squeezed, and her tirade fell short. “…I’ve found D to be remarkable in terms of moral compass,” He commented sympathetically. “Almost as much as he is in terms of efficiency. He must already know of this recent turn of events, surely. And his forms of revenge seem to have an art tied to them, for they are both non-fatal and cringe-worthy.”_

_She laughed._

* * *

 

_When D arrived at the point of where their assignment was supposed to happen, it was silent, though not particularly eerily so. But there was a brush of power emanating from that cave entrance, and he knew she was at least not alone in there once he recognized its signature. A tinge of irked emotion flickered at the edge of his mind, but he dismissed it and cautiously dismounted. The yawning mouth of the cavern was dark, but the moisture clinging to the rock inside allowed the moonlight some leisure to enter of its own accord._

_Dripping was the only sound echoing to him for a long time, and his head jerked slightly when he heard a voice yell something from further within. Tension strung through him at the implications, but he reminded himself that the tone was not one of panic or distress._

_He continued further in, and when he reached the largest portion of the tunnels, an exasperated breath exited him._

_“Hit me!”_

_There, in the middle of the floor, sat his partner and a Noble they had not seen for a century…_

_…playing cards._

_Balthazar dealt her another card, and she whooped as she took it and threw her hand down. “Hah! Beat that!”_

_Pale lips twitched as a smile was fought off by the Nobleman, and he sighed theatrically, tapping his cards together and adding them back to the pile between them. “If I’d known you were such a card shark, I would have had second thoughts about playing.” He lamented dryly._

_D glanced at the cards strewn about, and that irritation flashed back for a second. He’d been letting her win._

_His partner finally noticed him there, and that discomfiture had known its brief life due to the smile he’d been greeted with as she scrambled to her feet, a sack thrown over her shoulder casually. “D! You got the news, huh?” She chuckled, and started trotting over to him. “Who would’ve thought that a Noble could be so bad at blackjack?”_

_The two men shared a glance, one blatantly suspicious and one innocuous enough._

_When she reached him, however, he pulled her under an arm and slipped his sword from its sheath, pointing it at the Noble. Balthazar sighed again, this time in exaggerated woe. “Now D. It was only cards. I did nothing other than come to a damsel in distress, whom happened to not be in so much of distress than trapped in the throes of a bleeding heart. Really, dhampir, traveling with her must be such an enlightening, if not ecclesiastic experience. Might make an honest man out of me yet.” He countered the unspoken demand nonchalantly.  
D’s eyes narrowed into slits, but since he didn’t hear anything to the contrary from his partner nor sensed any thrall being enforced upon her, he put away his blade. She cleared her throat, and he released her. _

_Then, his partner swiftly gathered the cards up, tucking them back into her pouch and bowing to the Noble in the meantime. Giving that much **respect** to a Noble…? “Thank you for the company, Balthazar. And for being an unspeakably incessant busybody.” She grinned a little. _

_The Noble gracefully pushed to his feet, and broke a boundary that had D at her shoulder in less than a second— Her hand was taken and he bowed to it as well, the mischievously pondering expression he bore telling the dhampir that he was playing the thought of how far the homage he paid would go. But he did nothing untoward, and said, “It was my pleasure. And, I must say I am delighted to see that you’ve chosen to discard that robe you wore. What lies beneath is far more becoming.” With that, he stood straight and let go of her hand, to which she simply stared at him, as if confused. He winked slyly. “I’m afraid I’ll have to bid the both of you farewell, however. I have pressing business in these parts, no matter how much I would like to stay and converse.”_

_He made his exit elegantly, as D watched warily, silently, and his partner had a strangely consternated look. But, once the vampire was gone, she burst into short laughter. “What a bullshitter.” She remarked candidly, shaking her head. “Well, he knows how to let a girl win to gain favor, anyway.” At the continuous stare of her own partner, she explained, “Nobody has worse luck at cards than I do. Nobody. So, if I win five hands in a row, chances are someone’s cheating. And it wasn’t me.” Another chuckle was given at the end. “Ah, well. I like him, anyway.”_

_“You do?” D didn’t know what caused him to ask, but figured it was more of a precaution. The Nobility can ensnare anyone, and he had to keep an eye out to see if she was next…_

_She blinked rapidly. Then, with a startlingly impish laugh, she patted his arm and started out of the cave._

_“Don’t worry about it like that, D. You know you’re the only one for me~”_

_Wiping a hand down his face as he attempted to blank out his corresponding thoughts on the matter, the hunter followed._

_An enlightening experience indeed._


	10. ~Choice~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ...in which D learns that 'right' does not always mean 'best', and she has a lot to catch up for.

“Hey, D. Can I talk to you for a second? Kinda important.”

The dhampir paused in the rubbing-down of his cybernetic steed— This one actually seemed to be more mammal than machine for once, for it actually had a coat of fur and a layer of flesh to tend to— but gave acquiescence before returning to his task. “What is it?”

I took in a large breath, readying my vocal cords for what could possibly be our first confrontation. “Could I ask why we’re… Well, we haven’t been taking any jobs lately. They’ve been coming in, and you’ve been turning them all down. It’s been at least a decade, D. I know we’re never really short on cash, but it just seems… Weird.” I fiddled with my fingers, feeling like I was asking a really dumb question— Did that count as a question, since there really wasn’t a question in there? A request, then?— but D was never one for making a fool out of an honest inquiry. Or, should I say, _inquirer_.

His hands slowed very slightly, but enough to tell me that he had seen it coming. So it was intentional? “It’s because I’m waiting.” He answered evenly, but gave nothing more than that.

Yet I persisted, because I knew letting it lie there wouldn’t solve anything. “Waiting? What are we waiting for?” I quipped with a dipped brow, confused. I quickly gave up trying to go through our last set of jobs shortly after starting. Years blur events and people’s faces, words spoken and actions taken. The world we operated in was not ours, but I could at least remember the life we lead…

“Not we. I am.”

My head snapped up slightly at that, and my other brow fell to match with the other. “Wait. As in, not me, too?” Almost before those words were finished being said, my brain savagely starting jamming the pieces of the puzzle together, whether I wanted to or not. “Had I done something? Or was it something I hadn’t done? Oh, hell, I messed up massively somewhere, didn’t I?” Now I was _wishing_ I could remember those little details. Had I acted inhumanely to a client somehow, some time ago? Had I attacked when there was no need to, or—

“That depends.” Soon, his hands stopped their ministrations completely, simply resting against the fine black hide of our mount. He never turned to look at me, but his tone lowered a little. “Tell me what you have on your arms, and we’ll know.”

At first, I was completely and utterly confused. With dragging feet I approached his side, and lifted my arms for him to see. “Bandages?” I uttered in befuddlement, spreading my equally-covered hands. “I’ve worn them all this time. The gate-keeper robes were destroyed, but not what I was wearing under them. I thought you noticed all the things like that, though?” I picked at the pitch bindings absently. “I’ve had them a while, you know?”

D closed his eyes. “Take them off and you’ll see what I mean.”

Freezing with some dread of the unknown with no origin to be found, I stared at him hard. He knows I can’t do that, but he still asks me to…? The robes hid me from active perception, from humans and non-humans alike. I’d depended upon them because I had to at the time, but now I’d found I could keep a low enough profile just by living as I am now.

But wraiths are evil things, with evil natures, malice to spread to the undeserving in spades and kind death to those who succumb to it. Even if I could keep my unnatural presence in this plane a dhampir-guarded secret from its denizens, it would still be so very obvious if I didn’t put at least this much between me and the world…

…and he was asking me to shed it?

I found myself nodding quietly, profoundly, with fingers working the tight knots at the shoulder that bound my existence into shape. Suppose I’m just bad at denying him, considering how much the world likes to do it on its own…

Strips of soft, worn black cloth started pooling on the rocky ground gently, and I wondered why doing this felt so familiar when I’d never done so before. Nevertheless, the wraps were unwound up to the shoulder, falling loosely from beneath my cut-off sleeves. He said to show him my arms, and the wraps extended beneath my clothing, so it had no choice but to end there.

I lifted my bare arm, and was partially stunned, partially baffled at what both of our gazes were met with. By all rights, there should have been some shadowy appendage that looked like that of a skeleton, but _this…_ This was completely unexpected. It was a regular human limb, feminine and curved to look soft, but it was riddled with cracks, and pieces of… Skin?— flaked off, breaking away like brittle, dry clay. That familiar, wavering darkness laid within, and I took a step backwards in blind shock.

A hand grasped my wrist then, and I jumped violently at the touch of skin I hadn’t known for many years. It was _eerie_ , but it was also dangerous because he was pulsing bleeding _life_ to my senses _and it will not happen!_

Steeling myself and taking deep breaths, the mindlessly ravenous instincts refused to abate, but I was able to get a handle on them, at the very least. I smiled grimly, tiredly. “Sorry, D. I didn’t even notice. But I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later.” I apologized, and his head angled to the side the tiniest bit. The hand grasping me shifted a little as well, and the slightest brush of his nails caused another large chunk to fall to the grass and disintegrate into nothing but powder. His eyes were drawn to the motion, and he promptly withdrew the appendage.

“So you really didn’t know.” He murmured. Mirrored eyes glanced back up at me, then the other limb, remaining bound but most likely sharing the same fate as the one bare. “What is it?”

“Nature.” I answered immediately, looking down and off to the side, to my open palm. I sighed and closed it.  Then I smiled back up at him. “Nature isn’t just creation and life. The things that destroy and kill, evil things, are a part of it too. I am no exception.” I shrugged my shoulder, and flinched at the faint flutter of a breeze against the pricking little hairs lifting from my skin. How many _years_ it had been… “When you buy a potted plant— Make sure not to say ‘thank you’ when you get one as a gift, by the way— and take care of it, chances are it’s going to grow too big for the pot.” I decided to explain with an analogy. “But then you just plant it in a bigger pot, right?”

His responding words were flat. “I’m not sure how this correlates to gardening.”

I laughed, and it was more unpleasant than I’d wanted. “But, keep taking care of that plant, and soon you’ll need to transplant it again. Well, that’s me. I am that ubiquitous, ever-growing plant. I stay in a body, and I grow, and I can remain there for a while depending on what body and how strong it is. But the plant keeps growing, and since this particular shrub won’t lose out to a little piece of terracotta, the pot breaks.” I lifted my arm meaningfully, and then let it flop back to my side gracelessly.

If D was surprised or didn’t expect the information, it didn’t show on his face ~~like it ever does~~. “…So what you are, isn’t _what_ you are.” He stated this with an odd sense of finality. “Then what are you?”

I made a funny face. “I am the pseudo-wraith partner to a one-in-a-million vampire hunter that isn’t nearly as stoic or uncaring as he leads himself and others to believe.” I informed brightly, somehow finding the strength to give a cheeky smile through the uncertainty quivering in my gut. Or perhaps that’s still the hunger… I shrugged to myself. “Mostly, if I’m desperate and stuck in a breaking human body, I’ll find a corpse or something to inhabit for the time being. I figured I’d try something a little different this time, and it turned out that I’d joined to this particular wraith just a small time before you summoned it. So I was brought along too.” I cocked my head at him, smile waning. “Are you angry with me?”

The hunter said nothing for the longest time, but I could tell from the distant cast to his eyes that whatever thoughts he was having, I would not know them. But when he did respond, the even bigger shock came in the form of him actually _giving reassurance._ **_Which he does not do._** “I wasn’t questioning you. I know better than to think you’d force people out of their own bodies. I just need…” He trailed off, and his gaze cast somewhere over my head, into the trees beyond. Then he snapped them to me, and proceeded to brush off the entire topic. “You’d better get some sleep. We have a hard day of riding tomorrow.”

I was left there to rewrap my arm, standing and completely confused, as he took the reins to the horse and led it to some shelter under the branches of a tree. What am I supposed to think, when he doesn’t, well, tell me what he’s thinking…? There’s only so much I can infer myself, and…

I sighed and shook my head. Better listen to him, regardless.

So, when I curled up into my bedroll and once more felt the silver, knifelike gaze overseeing the area, I wilted because I didn’t have the courage to ask when I was supposed to take watch tonight…

 

* * *

 

While my sleep was an uneasy one, I was still able to wake up like clockwork, and set to striking camp. It was pretty much just a sleep-dazed period of being on autopilot for me, which I only really woke up from once D had wheeled the horse around and held his hand out. I was starting to think that what happened yesterday really wasn’t anything, but then I noticed that his perch on the saddle was… Odd.

I’d put my hand in his, questioning, but, of course, he said nothing— I was simply answered by how I was pulled up to the front of the saddle instead of the back this time, and I scrambled awkwardly to situate myself in the different riding style. Once I was settled, though… It unnerved me, more than anything.

When riding at the back, I was, in an almost literal sense, keeping an eye out behind us so he could focus elsewhere. He always steered the horse, because he always led the way; That was still the case, but now I was just… Baggage. A passenger.

Trying to ignore the sting my own thoughts were inflicting upon me, I shifted to accommodate the rolling canter we started off at, and realized how _stiffly_ I was holding myself. But the warmth of life and the beating of a heart just itching to be stilled was right behind me, and I was afraid that if I relaxed even the slightest bit, I might…

I abruptly made a faint sound that I stubbornly refused to call a squeak as that canter was pushed into a gallop, forcing me into the contact I had been attempting to avoid as we both naturally leaned into racing posture.

Focus on surviving, I chanted to myself. Just focus on that, and not on the very real possibility that he’s punishing you. Or maybe he isn’t, and this is just a terrible happenstance because of… Oh, I don’t know!

“Relax. You’re making the horse nervous.”

This murmur made against the top of my hood finally made me kick myself in the rear, and come to the conclusion that he’d stopped our stately pace of travel because he now had a destination in mind.

It was what else could be in his mind that was bothering me more, however. His bounties were his purpose in life, or so he believed. Or, more like that was the impression he gave off, waxing ‘professionalism’ until it shone and glittered. Up until this point in time, we had been taking them steadily, from whomever could afford our steep price. There was no end to it, and the monotony was dulled by the fact that people wanted some pretty crazy things done, sometimes.

D never stopped taking jobs, but he did now, and that was something bigger than I could even conceive, something that might have consequences later on… That could be dire.

If it were just a selfish thought from me, I wouldn’t have been so worried about it. But this erratic behavior… He was unstoppable because he refused to be stopped. He put everything on the line every single time he took up his sword, because he had absolutely nothing to lose in doing so. That’s why he’s the best. But now, I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was taking an extraordinary risk…

…just to save his partner.

 

* * *

 

For three days and three nights we raced on, only pausing briefly to rest our mount for grazing and water. Everything was silent in the meantime, to the point that even Lefty was refusing to comment on anything. I didn’t know how close of a connection the parasite had to his host, or whether or not Lefty knew anything about what D was thinking. But that bug always had something to say about everything and anything, so things had to be pretty bad if _he_ was keeping his mouth shut…

By the end of the third day, and moving into the start of the third night, I’d begun understanding D’s haste to go wherever it was he was intending to take us; The wraps around that previously-unbound limb now drooped and sagged, fluttering softly in the wind, and a wavering, shadowy appendage emerged from where the flesh broke away above the elbow. It was unresponsive for the most part, but it was the lack of hunger, that was concerning me the most.

Take a nocturnal animal, find it during the day, and you can be pretty sure that it’s sick or injured. Changing behaviors to that extent could only mean…

D had tensed behind me just now, subtly, probably more to alert me than to brace himself for whatever it was he sensed. The reins were pulled until the horse slowed to a trot, and then a cautious walk. Trees came into greater view as the pace was lessened, and also thinned out a little more around us— Enough for an ambush…?

Not even a second after I had that thought, there was silver in front of me, almost right in my face, which I instantaneously recognized as D’s sword. He held the handle just off to the side, curving the blade between us and the sudden shadow that appeared in the moonlit area a few yards ahead.

I couldn’t make out the figure, but it didn’t make any moves… D stopped the horse where it was.

“Your stalking is starting to become a bad habit. Not to mention an unattractive one.”

His voice was colder than usual, which in itself informed me of whom it was. We had come across the Nobleman Balthazar numerous times throughout our travels already, sometimes as a happenstance ally or a mere passing by. But it seemed that with each encounter, D’s demeanor became chillier, more unfriendly. Not that he really ever rolled the welcome mat out for anyone, but the more we met up with the mysterious creature of the night, the less he seemed to like him.

Not that D really _likes_ people either…

Shaking off the circular thoughts, I held my tongue as the one obstructing our way slowly became visible, the moonlight shining through the leaves as the clouds opened up. Bleeding-red eyes watched us guardedly, lacking the usual unperturbed, urbane quality they usually did. Ally can become foe so quickly…?

I was promptly proven wrong, however. “It’s hard to miss the trail of death left in your wake.” He replied ambiguously. “The environment around you, your steed… Most likely even you, D, are dying by staying in her presence. Slowly. Bit by bit.” He canted his head to the side slightly, fingers tightly clenching the folds of his cape around him. “And she will not last, should you attempt to carry her much farther. She falls apart with every hoof beat.”

What? Narrowing my eyes at him, I then turned back to look at my partner, skipping right past the part of suspicion and hitting right against accusation. He knows more about my condition than he let on, and he wasn’t the only one. Not only that, but he seemed to know more than _I…_ I was spared a glance, but only that.

“That will be the case if you get in our way any more than this.” D shot him down bluntly.

Balthazar’s face darkened, looking genuinely angry. “Your urge to monopolize is going to kill her, you and countless others around you.” He declared vehemently, swinging an arm out elegantly.

“You’re telling me not to heal her.” D’s voice had dropped to ice-like levels that even I, without warmth, shivered at. “I’ve tolerated you this far, but if you stand in my way, I will cut you down.”

The Nobleman’s mouth curled unpleasantly. “She is beyond healing. Now, all you can do is contain her. Control the damage caused.”

“What do you know?” I spoke up without thinking, glaring. My face made the right expression, but my voice started echoing as hollowly as it did back when I yet possessed the robes. It was still mine yet, but…

The anger lessened in the vampire’s face as hesitance took its place. “I had…A scholarly curiosity as to what manner of creature you are, since you had never divulged when I asked.” He answered falteringly, glancing between us. “The Nobility have discovered all natural life in this world, and recorded most mutagens as well. Wraiths are rare enough, but one that had somehow attained a capacity for sentience? Scientifically speaking, it flummoxed me.” His eyes blinked, morose. “It led me to the theory of possession. That this is happening merely confirmed it.” He lowered his tone regretfully. “The damage of undoing cannot be undone by any means we know of, but there is a way to stop it from progressing.” A large metal contraption was pulled from the depths of his cloak, looking much like the clawed legs of a spider…

Suddenly, the horse beneath us started spooking, and D pulled on the reins to keep it calm. It didn’t work— He tried taking hold of me before he was thrown, but we went in opposite directions, and I was down an arm, unable to do anything to aid in his efforts. And that shouldn’t have happened to _start_ with. D’s reflexes were far too sharp for him to be _thrown_ ; Under normal circumstances, he would have leapt from the equine with me in tow just a split second before the toss would have occurred.

…unless at least part of what Balthazar said was true.

I should have landed straight on my head, but I was caught gently, like a babe being dandled by a doting parent. The cape surrounding me was soft, so much so that it was distracting. I didn’t get the opportunity to fight back against it.

It all happened in a matter of seconds.

D sailed through the air like gravity had no hold on him, straight at us. But Balthazar had already begun whatever it was he was doing, and that device he had suddenly clamped over my torso like a vice. The points of its claws dug unforgivingly into my back, and it was _painful_.

Right at that feeling, I lost control of all limbs, and slumped in the Noble’s hold. That hold didn’t remain for too long, though. D had reached us in that second, and I was abruptly falling, Balthazar gone as if he had never existed.

The back of my hand hit the ground before I was caught, another piece of evidence that the dhampir hunter’s abilities were degenerating. He otherwise did not falter, nor showed a tremble or sign of weakness. But I knew…

“…an aegis.” He murmured, tone turning hateful for the first time I had ever heard. “This was his idea of a solution?”

I blinked at the normally-tacit partner of mine, and his very evident anger over what happened. Whatever it was, that just happened… “What’s an aegis?” I asked quietly, having to slightly force my jaw open to speak.

He did not look down at me at all, and nor did he answer my question.

 

* * *

 

As it turns out, I was able to put together what was going on by myself. To be honest, I think he expected me to do that so he wouldn’t have to explain, for whatever reason he had. But observation served me anyway, so I was quick to find out that my lack of motor control could be fought off in a fashion, and the cracking that had started up my good arm had stopped completely.

But it wasn’t only that.

Everything _stopped_. The wind would blow across my skin, over my face, and my hair would not move. Eyelashes did not fall. Nails did not grow. I may not have been living organic flesh, but my body was meant to emulate it, and the fact that it didn’t meant… I didn’t even want to think about it, but the thought was still there, and I couldn’t escape it.

After a few more days of travel, I was starting to think that perhaps just letting me die would have been the merciful option. The pain from my pierced back never abated, was bearable at one point but somewhere along the lines became gnawing, distracting. Nothing healed, but nothing died, either. Like my own personal limbo, where I was the only unchanging thing, including my state.

D didn’t act any different than usual, which may have been solely for my own ease of mind if anything. Or maybe he just doesn’t have that much of a bedside manner…? I almost laughed at the thought. Then again, I don’t think I’d ever gotten injured in a way he’s ever needed to treat before. And his body consumes the blood he himself sheds from his wounds to heal them. Which is weird, but I try not to question his physiology in the same way he’s never questioned mine. Until now, anyway.

The crackling of the campfire was soothing that night, and I couldn’t understand for the life of me why we’d suddenly turned into diurnal creatures. All this sun exposure can’t be good for him, though I was ruefully pleased to admit that his delayed reaction times had corrected themselves.

But what Balthazar said wouldn’t leave my head no matter what I did… Which wasn’t much, since I was little more than a sack of limbs for D to tote about.

And that was exactly how I came to be huddled up in front of the fire to stay warm— Each night he lifted me from the horse, arranged me somewhere on the ground, and proceeded to build camp around the spot. Wrapped me in a blanket, made sure I wasn’t too close to the flames; Kept watch, and most likely didn’t sleep a wink this entire time. Come time I’d get sleepy, he’d notice, and lay me out on my bedroll— And when the sun came back up, he did it all in reverse, packed up, picked me up and set off again.

Once again, his patience astounded me, and a more shameful part of me wondered how he became so attentive when taking care of someone. Another part was ashamed in itself, because now was I not only a burden, but completely useless as well.

It wasn’t… A good state of mind to be in.

And all these things he noticed, because D notices all, and instead of watching our surroundings as he usually did, his eyes were on me the whole night. Now, that kinda intense speculation from anyone would be unnerving, but when it’s someone with D’s face and they happen to be your partner, I was practically coming apart at the seams.

“…D.” I murmured, finally looking away from the fire and into his eyes across the way. “Do you think this is going to get better?” He gave no response, so I quietly added, “I don’t.”

“Why not?”

I was surprised that those last two words spurred him to give those two of his own, and everything started pouring out as a result of it. “Because this body’s breaking, D. You’ve noticed, right? Even my blood’s dried up.” I glanced down at myself, buried underneath the heavy blanket as I was. It wasn’t visible, but the decayed and degraded arms respectively were folded along my belly to stay warm as well. “I’m not healing. And I’m not going to. Unless you know something I don’t.”

Normally, his silences were just that, him not answering and just listening. But this time, from this atmosphere, it was an admission that he was at a loss, too. And the legendary D, who could do just about anything…

I hung my head, gathered my last shreds of courage, and looked back up at him. When I did, his eyes widened slightly, but his expression otherwise did not change. Reaching to the side, he pulled a silver flask from his pouch, and unhurriedly twisted the cap off. He took a swig, and I waited a moment before speaking. “…If it comes down to it, D, you can kill me. Destroy this body the rest of the way.” I said it softly, and if I was told he couldn’t hear what I said, I would have believed him, with how hollowed-out my voice had become. “It would be better that way, wouldn’t it? If you have any pity on me at all, you should. To remember me like this. Not like I’ll become.” Because if I had to live through eternity like this, I would, without a doubt, go insane.

I gazed at him, from our opposing sides of the fire, and I let my eyes carry my silent plea. There was no other way around this; I couldn’t take to another body, because I would essentially need a brain-dead, but living body in order for it to work. If I went into someone functioning, I would kill them, snuff them out and have their body for my own. And I don’t want to keep killing people just to live. I don’t want to ever do that.

The black organ still pumping away in my chest used to fill me with such misguided compassion, meant to be used for ill intent and self-gain, self-preservation. I deviated myself, what my body was created for, and I’d like to think I’d done some good by it. But if my story was ending, here…

He closed his eyes, and his expression remained completely even as he pushed to his feet. I wished I could have felt some relief by it, finally moving the stoic dhampir with my words, but the same heart that once would have felt guilt for making him do something like this, was just as frozen as the rest of me. And exposing him to that, in itself, was something my empty head couldn’t bear.

I’d closed my own eyes, waiting to see what he’d do— But then I felt burning warm, with emphasis on the _burning_ , and the weight of thinking just sort of singed away at the edges pleasantly…

 

* * *

 

_When he’d finished administering the chemical to his partner, he half expected her to fall, or to grow lax. But even in this growing state of dream-like daze that he enforced upon her, her body merely sat there, exactly as he positioned it, eyes glazed contentedly as she stared forward, unblinking. This was the last thing he wanted to do, to take her freedom away from her— He had honestly expected her to reach this point a day or two beforehand, a heartfelt request to be released from what could potentially be eternal torment._

_D wasn’t a stranger to mercy kills. He has given them before, and he didn’t doubt that he would eventually be driven to give yet another in the future. But the more he thought about it, the more he could only think that this wouldn’t be one of them._

_“Look at her, poor girl. She practically had knives driven into her back, and you made them into wings. You should have listened to her, D. It would be better that way.” The voice of Left Hand bumbled along awkwardly, unsure and hesitant to talk about the subject._

_His owner wasn’t inclined to either, but decided that advice wouldn’t be the worst thing for him to ask for, at this rate. “You think I should have gone through with it?” A cloth was pulled from his satchel, and he wiped a bit of the chemical away from the corner of her mouth. Simply sitting there, like a life-sized doll he’d made out of her…_

_His hand sighed. “And look at **that**. That’s attachment, D. When you start making exceptions and excuses for the sake of someone else, you’re getting too close. I mean, I kinda like her too, but wouldn’t that mean we **don’t** want her to suffer? C’mon, D.” The parasite wheedled a little reluctantly. “We had some time with her, now it’s time to let her go. Keeping her around is… Well, it’s a little selfish. Y’know?” _

_D felt the anger, the outrage against what he was hearing. But his emotions just confirmed the conclusion his mind was coming to. And, rarely, he reciprocated the communication completely. “Then it’s about time.”_

**_‘You can’t kill that which doesn’t die.’_ **

_The words stirred in his mind, as he rocked back onto his heels, returning to gazing into the fire as his senses remained alert._

_When his partner had said those haunting words to him, so quiet, he didn’t know what importance they would have. Living things are born, breathe, die— That is how nature intended it. Organic, original, without the tampering of Nobility and humanity alike. But then it could only lead him to one possible conclusion. She did not die; She wasn’t alive, either. Whether just her host or the unknown entity that was housed within it, it did not fall under any of the enigmatic conditions that the universe considered ‘alive’._

_…No, he thought, the silence from his talking appendage becoming pronounced. The host was the problem, the being which she lived **through**. **It** did not live, so when its strict, closed-circuit form of consumption and regeneration was broken, it was irreparable. It created a nigh invulnerable creature of power, but once that hairline weakness was struck, the entire structure fell apart… _

_He didn’t realize he had shut his eyes until he opened them again, and he looked to his partner automatically, an idea taking sprout in his mind fast and firm._

_If she did not die…_

_D would just need to make her live._

 

* * *

The first real, true thought I had in what felt like eons was that my chest felt light. There was no weight, no constriction, and there was this odd, familiar heat within me…

And once it occurred to me _what_ that heat was, I’d nearly gone and lost it by taking a heart attack.

Everything was stiff, like I was brought fresh out of the package and had yet to be broken in, from my fingers right down to my toes. I tested each of them individually, the leaden feeling gradually fading with each wriggle, and a shiver raced down my back, causing it to arch up slightly. I felt it, all of it…

I almost didn’t even think to open my eyes, but I did, and that, too, was natural— Pupils constricted and contracted on their own, run by blood, biological processes, not something else.

Above me was the ceiling of what looked like an old ruin, or perhaps a mausoleum. The gold of a dying sun rained through the cracks and fissures lining the time-abused marks of what must have been intricate designs carved into some sort of soft stone.

I sat up, panicking, the first thought in my fully-conscious mind being that I couldn’t see my partner anywhere— A heart started hammering, and I wondered sourly why it was so loud before realizing that it was my own.

“Well well. I can see that it looks fairly well on you, regardless.”

Hearing, it was an unfamiliar voice… I snapped around to look, and I saw this strange old man sitting in a chair, looking completely normal except for the too-bright, golden eyes he had. The lack of anything resembling pupils was also pretty creepy, too. But there was something oddly endearing about that tanned, wrinkled face that I couldn’t describe… Screwing up my face without thinking, I touched a hand to my chest and, baffled, angled my head to the side in question.

The old man stood from his chair, bones creaking and groaning almost audibly, and shuffled over to me with a worn cane that seemed to be as weathered as he. “Speak. I need to see if all of your faculties are correctly implemented.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Implemented? ‘Scuse me, but my ‘faculties’ are none of your business, thank-you.”

Then I clapped a hand over my mouth, because this was all so new, and not at the same time. I’ve done this before, I knew this. But there was the trouble of actually believing that I— I was…

“It’s my business until my part of the bargain is complete.” The old codger shot me down bluntly, ignoring my obvious confusion. “You spent the last ten years practically a vegetable. You don’t make a switch as big as this and expect it to go completely smoothly. Not unless you’re an idiot, anyway.”

He’s an ass. I think I like him, I decided. “Well, pardon me for being _indisposed_ for an entire decade and not knowing what the hell was going on around me.” I snipped primly, folding my arms and frowning at how he watched the motion with hawk-like intensity. “What switch?” Then my frown went worried. “Last time I checked, I…”

“It was the dhampir twisted around your little finger, girl. Speaking of fingers, touch each one to your thumb in order and back again. For manual dexterity purposes.” He rumbled gruffly, leaning heavily upon his cane. His beard twitched upon his chest as he gave a toss of his chin, and the plain leather vest under it screamed ‘cowboy’ to me.

My eyes widened, and I absently did as I was told, demanding, “D? Where is he? Why am I—?”

I cut off immediately, seeing the stranger irritably roll his eyes and jerk his head behind me.

I turned and gasped silently, the old man meanwhile explaining, “Switched… Everything, I s’pose. You’re red-blooded now, but don’t mistake yourself for anything human, girl. You were made a beast, and nothing short of a miracle from heaven will change that. But, well.” His tone went grudgingly softer. “Nothing says there’s anything wrong with that.”

As he was saying this, I nearly had to swallow my heart again, for several reasons that I would have been better off not even thinking of.

D was seated on the floor, relaxed, one leg stretched out and the other propping up his elbow. His hat was tilted down like he usually did when he rested, but his state of repose seemed to end there. The armor he wore was damaged in several places, revealing wounds that I never recalled seeing on him to last more than a few seconds at the most. This was the most beaten-up I’d ever seen him, and my heart started fluttering anxiously again because if wounds didn’t heal then that means he—

“He’s fine.” I jumped at this, for the unknown caretaker had stepped right up beside me while I wasn’t paying attention. “Just recovering from his part of the bargain.” He chuckled then, and it had that forced tone that told me he didn’t do it often. “My arch nemesis dead at my feet, and all I needed to do in return was a little forbidden transmutation. Child’s play.” Then he quirked a bushy brow at me. “Or it would have been. You were intent on flying away on me half the time.”

I decided to not ask him what he meant by that.

“…D?” I called out tentatively, still unused to the physical, vibrating vocal cords that I hadn’t used since… A very, very long time ago. I slipped off the stone slab I had been laid upon, flinching as I felt sunlight land on my clothes and peeping skin as I ambled under the streams coming from the ceiling. I approached him, and settled onto my knees at his side, carefully, knowing I would bruise in this body if not— I had just peered into the shadows of his face when his head tilted up a little, and silver eyes peered at me tiredly over their lids.

Then I remembered why, exactly, I had picked my previous host to _not_ be a flesh-and-blood creature.

Because even with all the nicks and small, bleeding cuts marring his features, I was getting hit with the brunt force of his otherworldly captivation.

“Oh _shit._ ”

Then I blinked rapidly, flooding with mortification as I had actually said that aloud, and pretty loudly, might I add. Summoning my latent ability to bullshit with the best of them, I followed up with a wide, awkward smile and a, “Hello D.”

Oh, the eloquence.

His eyes gave just a single bat, like he was expecting more.

I tried to ignore the uproarious laughter of the old man behind us.

“Well, uhh. Shit.” Dammit, I did it again. Stop swearing at him already! “Well, I can already tell this is going to be extremely awkward, now. I mean, did you always know you were this beautiful? Yeah? No? I didn’t. Sure, you were nice to look at, but now it’s just plain distracting. And frankly I don’t find that to be fair.” …Someone, please shoot me before more words come out.

Shrinking in soul-crushing embarrassment, I somehow found the courage to keep looking at him, and saw him glance over to the guffawing old man. “…It’ll be interesting, at least.”

I couldn’t tell if he was saying that to him or me.

Thankfully, the one who apparently performed my ‘surgery’ revealed that it wasn’t I, whom he was laughing at. “You’re a poor sod, aren’t you?” His mirth was directed at D, whom didn’t bat an eye at the criticism. “Is this what you had to deal with? Creatures with black blood know no passion, but I can see from right here that yours is bright red. Is that why we conducted business?” He crowed, cheeks turning pink from the laughter. “You poor, bleeding sod. Well, at least you have your work cut out for you.”

I spoke up automatically, narrowing my eyes again. “Excuse you, Mr. Frankenstein—”

“What did you call me?”

“—but I don’t remember you ever being around during the how-many years we were traveling together.” I crossed my arms confrontationally, and his eyes curved up in approval. Ornery old bastard.

“I didn’t need to be.” He stated bluntly. “All I have to do is look at his face.”

This made me blink, and I then started scrutinizing D’s face for whatever it was the other guy saw. “…I think your eyesight’s going on you, old man.” I uttered with the utmost gravity, nodding to myself. “Better get that checked out. Actually, I can do that— D, do you still have your knife on you?” I asked brightly, but I didn’t get a response.

Those odd, golden eyes practically sparkled, though. “Say, hunter…”

“No.” _That_ got a response. D let out as irritated a sigh as he was capable of, before pushing to his feet. Man, did he look tired… What was it, exactly, did he fight…? I abruptly hopped back to my feet as well, pointedly looking elsewhere as the old man grumbled disappointedly in the background.

“…well.” I started lamely, and then vaguely waved a finger at my partner in an all-encompassing gesture. “All I know is that it’s going to take a while to get used to that. Sorry D, but you’re too pretty to look at.” I lamented morosely.

D gave me his ‘follow’ look, something familiar in this unfamiliar place, and started out the main archway leading out of the ruins.

“It gets easier.”

My jaw dropped for a second, and I trotted after him after a beat, hollering.

“Wait, what?”

 

* * *

 

“Run! Run run run!”

I cackled gleefully as we leapt upon our horse one after the other, and the hunter behind me quickly dug his heels into its side to spur it into a gallop. With a triumphant fist held in the air, within which was clenched a torn pair of grey breeches, I let out another laugh as clouds of dust started kicking up behind us.

Letting the article clothing go after a few seconds of reveling in the shouts behind us, I let out a gusty sigh of accomplishment and waited until we slowed down a safe distance away to relax. The heavy jingling of our coin purse was pretty satisfying in its own right, too.

D only commented a little while after we’d picked up the stately pace. “Are you intending to humiliate every person we come across?”

I hummed. “Of course not. But people that deride you still piss me off. And, whaddya know? Along with my brand-new dhampir blood transplant, I seem to have been instilled with a deep sense of pettiness and mischief. Unless I’m just noticing it now.” I smiled a little to myself. “Though, it does feel nice to help people of my own choice, now. You know. Instead of some pseudo-compulsion saying, _‘You must!’_ Plus, human food. God, I missed food.” I blinked, then craned my neck around to look at my companion, who was wordlessly listening to my usual ranting. “Am I talking too much? Am I interrupting your deep, profound thoughts?”

D glanced at me in the closest thing to exasperation I had ever seen.

It was _beautiful_.

“Next town we stop in, no coffee.”

I gaped, horrified. “I _finally_ have a system that processes caffeine, and you want to deprive me?”

“Only if you keep depriving people of their pants.”

This dry proclamation made me sputter into laughter. “You didn’t stop me.” I pointed out between giggles. “Not only did you not stop me, but you misled the posse _and_ made sure we got away. You know what that means?” I looked back at him again, grinning. “That means you’re an _accomplice._ Welcome to the land of lighthearted pranks and misdemeanors, D. Hope you enjoy your stay.”

All I got to that was his usual ‘hm’, but I like to think that means he’s amused, so I let it go.

Again, I just have to enthuse about how much this situation is both fantastic and horrible at the same time. As I am now, the only compulsions and instincts I have to follow are my own, and laughing came a little bit easier, though I don’t know if that’s something _physical_ that changed. The world is still really crappy, and there are still things always out to kill us for one reason or another. I didn’t lose any strength or agility through my ‘transformation’, and I didn’t have to worry about stealing life in order to heal wounds anymore.

Not that he’s given me much opportunity to _get_ wounded… There’s a reason I’m still riding up front, I suppose.

The part that was terrible was the fact that I was female in more than just physical shape now, and suddenly D makes it very, very difficult to maintain composure. And, the worst thing is that, when he found out, he didn’t seem put off by it at all. _At all._ I understand it’s just the ‘allure of the dhampir’ thing, but really, I call bull. I share his blood now, and you don’t see _me_ running around and stunning the masses with my good looks.

…sorry, ego. That was harsh.

Hitting my forehead with the heel of my palm for the umpteenth time over the topic, I heard him make a sound of inquiry.

I grumbled. “It’s nothing. Just some feminine angst, here. No need to gawk, move along.”

D was silent for a few seconds, and then murmured, “You’re smiling a lot more, lately. Why?”

Damning the fact that I now have a heartbeat that can betray my outward reaction to things, I settled for the honest truth. And then changed my mind last second. “I am? Huh.” Facing forward so he couldn’t see my expression, I made an impishly funny face. “It might be the same reason why you’re a lot more talkative, lately.” Trap planted!

He made another sound, noncommittal. “I am? Hm.” A blatant mockery.

Trap disarmed! I shook my head wryly. “…in any case, it’s good to have enjoyable moments, like this.” Then I blinked. “ _Do_ you enjoy moments like these?”

I wasn’t really expecting an answer to such an unintentionally-loaded question, but after a period of what seemed to be pensive contemplation, he replied. “…life feels easier. Sometimes.”

There it is— Damnable butterflies, damnable dhampirs, damnable red blood that means I can be enchanted like the rest of the common folk. …But, unlike them, he is in my life. So, despite that some horrid things may happen, and the road ahead will most likely be filled with all those things that go bump in the night… It was a secret little feeling of fulfilled greed, almost gloating, that I never had before. D might enrapture countless people in his journeys, a lot of people that might be smarter, more attractive, or just better in general than I— But I am the one that has his day-to-day attention. He passes through their lives like a wind, and I’m lucky enough to be the bird that caught an updraft.

…Was I always this possessive?

Was that the word for it?

Chuckling at myself, I hummed under my breath, and closed my eyes.

Maybe.


End file.
